eli_sennesh comments on Only You Can Prevent Your Mind From Getting Killed By Politics - Less Wrong

39 Post author: ChrisHallquist 26 October 2013 01:59PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 26 November 2013 08:48:26PM -1 points [-]

In any case the survey results do not support your thesis that LW is dominated by neoliberals.

The survey results are out? Neat!

Not sure what you are proposing as an alternative to historical narratives leading to what actually happened. Basing theories of reality on counterfactuals doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

I'm not saying we should base theories on counterfactuals. I'm saying that we should account for anthropic bias when giving out complexity penalties. The real path reality took to produce us is often more complicated than the idealized or imagined path.

Graeber's view are not quite mainstream consensus ones.

The question is: are they non-mainstream in economics, anthropology, or both? I wouldn't trust him to make any economic predictions, but if he tells me that the story of barter is false, I'm going to note that his training, employment, and social proof are as an academic anthropologist working with pre-industrial tribal cultures.

Comment author: Vaniver 26 November 2013 09:20:20PM *  4 points [-]

The survey results are out? Neat!

Previous years' survey results: 2012, 2011, 2009. The 2013 survey is currently ongoing.

Comment author: Lumifer 26 November 2013 09:26:31PM 3 points [-]

I'm saying that we should account for anthropic bias when giving out complexity penalties.

How would that work?

The question is: are they non-mainstream in economics, anthropology, or both?

I am not sure what the mainstream consensus in anthropology looks like, but I have the impression that Graeber's research is quite controversial.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 26 November 2013 09:30:51PM 0 points [-]

At minimum, it does seem like many anthropologists see Graeber's work as much more tied into his politics than things even often are in that field, and that's a field that has serious issues with that as a whole.