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lucidfox comments on What we're losing - Less Wrong Discussion
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My main concern about Less Wrong recently has been the proliferation of posts related to the Singularity and HP: MoR, which I frankly don't care about. For a site that encourages people to think outside the box, it's at times biased against unorthodox opinions, or at least, I get downvoted for arguing against the Singularity and immortality and for pointing out flaws in MoR. At these times the site seems cultish in a way that makes me feel uncomfortable.
I was drawn here both by Eliezer's meta-rationality posts and by discussions about quantum mechanics, philosophy of mathematics, game theory, and such. However, recently I've been growing increasingly skeptical about the dissociation between LW's stated goals and the actual behavior I observe here.
If you want to talk about about quantum mechanics, philosophy of mathematics, game theory, and such, why not start threads about those topics instead of arguing against the Singularity and immortality and pointing out flaws in MoR—things you don't even care about?
I'm confused - you perceive a dissociation, yet you seem to agree with the emphasis on discussions of rationality. If we want LW to go in opposite directions, and both come to the conclusion that LW is going in the wrong direction, is there a conservation-of-evidence problem here? What would it take for someone to believe LW is going in the right direction?
I think there's a false dichotomy here.
You want LW to feature more discussions of applied rationality, of practical uses of the mental skills sharpened here.
I want LW to feature more discussions about abstract matters, about the framework of rationality and the means to sharpen said skills.
The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. One doesn't have to arrive at the expense of the other. What I don't want LW to become is a Singularity cult or a personality cult, or really any kind of cult - a community where anyone not sharing the group's mainstream opinions is considered wrong by default. I'm not saying LW is or has become that - generally, I found that at least discussions of non-mainstream opinions are welcome as long as they're backed by valid arguments - but I do see signs that it can possibly turn that way.