DanArmak comments on Rationality Quotes June 2014 - Less Wrong

9 Post author: Tyrrell_McAllister 01 June 2014 08:32PM

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Comment author: Plasmon 05 June 2014 07:06:54PM *  3 points [-]

What other option is there? Preferring to act out of rational calculation towards a goal would put the speaker among those who "believe that solutions emerge from judicious study of discernible reality", i.e. the very people he's arguing against. We are left to guess what alternative decision procedure the speaker is proposing. eli_sennesh's interpretation is one possibility, do you have another?

Comment author: DanArmak 05 June 2014 07:55:58PM 2 points [-]

I read him as saying his empire was so powerful he didn't need to care about existing reality or to plan ahead; he could make it up as he went and still expected to succeed no matter what, so he didn't need to judiciously study the existing reality before overwriting it.