Daniel_Burfoot comments on Archimedes's Chronophone - Less Wrong

20 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 23 March 2007 05:43PM

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Comment author: Daniel_Burfoot 17 May 2011 04:17:20AM 9 points [-]

I'm kind of sad that it comes out as "every boy of reasonable upbringing", but since I see "every boy, every girl" as executing my time's algorithm of "who can learn" (I didn't propose teaching chimps or dolphins), that's the best I can do.

!! This obviously implies that we should be trying to teach chimps and dolphins!

Comment author: moshez 18 May 2011 11:00:51PM *  3 points [-]

That does not follow. I followed the algorithm of "check who my counter-parts think is teachable according to the most cutting edge research", so Archimedes follows the same algorithm. However, I happen to really truly believe that my time's beliefs on this specific issue are fairly accurate -- and that even though Archimedes probably believed the same about his time, he's wrong and I'm right.

Comment author: AdeleneDawner 19 May 2011 12:03:00AM 3 points [-]

he's wrong and I'm wrong.

Typo?

Comment author: moshez 19 May 2011 11:05:13PM 0 points [-]

Yes :)

Comment author: Clippy 19 May 2011 12:32:31AM 2 points [-]

Yes, humans should teach programming to chimps and dolphins. Who but a racist would disagree?

That doesn't mean that you must teach them that specific skill now, with their current knowledge -- there are pre-requisites you will have to cover first. But you certainly need to attempt the first steps.

Comment author: FAWS 19 May 2011 11:21:22PM *  2 points [-]

Well, some people are trying to teach chimps sign language or similar. Success there seems likely to be a necessary prerequisite for teaching them programming.