KnaveOfAllTrades comments on Street action "Stop existential risks!", Union square, San Francisco, September 27, 2014 at 2:00 PM - Less Wrong

-14 Post author: turchin 20 September 2014 02:08PM

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

Comments (23)

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

Comment author: KnaveOfAllTrades 21 September 2014 02:43:49PM *  2 points [-]

Whoever downvoted this comment, please explain your downvote.

turchin's proposed action makes me uneasy, but how would you justify this comment? Generally such comments are discouraged here, and you would've been downvoted into oblivion if you'd made such a response to a proposal that weren't so one-sidedly rejected by Less Wrong. What's the relevant difference that justifies your comment in this case, or do you think such comments are generally okay here, or do you think you over-reacted?

Comment author: Salemicus 21 September 2014 04:58:37PM 6 points [-]
  • I think my comment was on-point, truthful, pithy, and not overly rude. Such comments should be encouraged.
  • I genuinely think the post is hilarious, because it shows so many cognitive biases in service of "rationalism."
  • The poster claims he wants to reduce X-risk. But his proposed solution is to stand in the street with placards saying "Stop Existential Risks!" And then magically a solution appears, because of "awareness." What would we say about, for example, a malaria charity that used such a tactic?
  • I seem to recall that policy debates shouldn't appear one-sided. Yet all his slogans are ridiculous. Consider, for example, "Prevent Global Catastrophe!" Do you think that people who don't take existential risks are in favour of global catastrophe? What does it even mean to say there is a 50% chance of a global catastrophe?
  • Perhaps the funniest part is that the poster has already organised street actions for immortality. Presumably, he must believe that those made great strides to solving the problem of immortality(!!!), which is why he's now using the same tactics to tackle existential risk more generally...
  • But in another way, his street actions for immortality were presumably successful, because they made the participants (at Burning Man, no less!) feel good about themselves, and superior to the rest of the common flock. So the second part of my comment was a double-edged sword.
  • I could go on. Ultimately, if you make a ridiculous post, you can't expect people not to laugh.