shminux comments on The genie knows, but doesn't care - Less Wrong

54 Post author: RobbBB 06 September 2013 06:42AM

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Comment author: linkhyrule5 10 September 2013 01:06:36AM 7 points [-]

But at least Eliezer has done several impossible things in the last decade or so,

Name three? If only so I can cite them to Eliezer-is-a-crank people.

Comment author: shminux 10 September 2013 07:13:42AM *  0 points [-]

If only so I can cite them to Eliezer-is-a-crank people.

I advise against doing that. It is unlikely to change anyone's mind.

By impossible feats I mean that a regular person would not be able to reproduce them, except by chance, like winning a lottery, starting Google, founding a successful religion or becoming a President.

He started as a high-school dropout without any formal education and look what he achieved so far, professionally and personally. Look at the organizations he founded and inspired. Look at the high-status experts in various fields (business, comp sci, programming, philosophy, math and physics) who take him seriously (some even give him loads of money). Heck, how many people manage to have multiple simultaneous long-term partners who are all highly intelligent and apparently get along well?

Comment author: Peterdjones 10 September 2013 10:19:48AM *  5 points [-]

He's achieved about what Ayn Rand achieved, and almost everyone thinks she wasa crank.

Comment author: linkhyrule5 10 September 2013 04:52:25PM 3 points [-]

Basically this. As Eliezer himself points out, humans aren't terribly rational on average and our judgements of each others' rationality isn't great either. Large amounts of support implies charisma, not intelligence.

TDT is closer to what I'm looking for, though it's a ... tad long.

Comment author: linkhyrule5 10 September 2013 04:54:17PM *  4 points [-]

I advise against doing that. It is unlikely to change anyone's mind.

Point, but there's also the middle ground "I'm not sure if he's a crank or not, but I'm busy so I won't look unless there's some evidence he's not."

The big two I've come up with is a) he actually changes his mind about important things (though I need to find an actual post I can cite - didn't he reopen the question of the possibility of a hard takeoff, or something?) and b) TDT.