botogol2 comments on Fake Fake Utility Functions - Less Wrong

17 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 06 December 2007 06:30AM

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Comment author: botogol2 07 December 2007 09:33:45AM 4 points [-]

hmm... well, it was an interesting month but I'm not sure I didn't enjoy this blog more when it was a blog just about, well, overcoming bias. Eliezer, perhaps you should have your own blog...

BTW I saw you on the TV the other night, talking about the singularity.

It's always odd, isn't it, seeing a person for the first time whom you have previously known only in writing. As always, you didn't look/sound at all like I expected.

Which led me to an interesting line of thought: why does reading someone's writing produce *any* expectation at all of what the person looks/sounds like? It's a bias. Is there a halo effect: we expect intelligent writers to look tall and beautiful? Or is there a einstein-bias: we expect intelligent writers to be wild-looking with messy hair, talking quickly?

Anyway, there you were on the screen. Looking different. "Quick!", I yelled to my wife, who was in the kitchen, "quick, come here! It's Eliezer Yudkowsky!"

hmmm...perhaps I need to get out more.