DanielLC comments on Open Thread, November 8 - 14, 2013 - Less Wrong

1 Post author: witzvo 08 November 2013 08:13PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (141)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: DanielLC 14 November 2013 06:21:44AM 1 point [-]

If it works regardless of what it is you're telling people to do, that makes it dark arts.

Comment author: Dan_Weinand 14 November 2013 08:08:50AM 0 points [-]

Oh, I'm well aware that this technique could be used to spread irrational and harmful memes. But if you're trying to persuade someone to rationality using techniques of argument which presume rationality, it's unlikely that you'll succeed. So you may have to get your rationalist hands dirty.

Your call on what's the better outcome: successfully convincing someone to be more rational (but having their agency violated through irrational persuasion) or leaving that person in the dark. It's a nontrivial moral dilemma which should only be considered once rational persuasion has failed.