LW's image problem: "Rationality" is suspicious

Bongo

Concerning Less Wrong's tagline, consider this plausible reaction of someone looking at LW for the first time:

Cut the crap, nobody cares about rationality in the abstract. Just tell me what view you're trying to push under the guise of presenting it as the only "rational" one.

And here are two real quotes from 2009:

[concerning the ban on SIAI discussion during the first weeks of LW] I think it was so that newcomers wouldn't think that LW are a bunch of fringe technophiles that just want to have their cause associated with rationality.

And in reply:

But that's pretty much what LW is, no? I've long suspected that "rationality," as discussed here, was a bit of a ruse designed to insinuate a (misleading) necessary connection between being rational and supporting transhumanist ideals.

The quoted text speaks for itself really. So therefore I think LW's admins/web designers should seriously consider replacing the rationality tagline with something more savory.

Concerning Less Wrong's tagline, consider this plausible reaction of someone looking at LW for the first time:

Cut the crap, nobody cares about rationality in the abstract. Just tell me what view you're trying to push under the guise of presenting it as the only "rational" one.

And here are two real quotes from 2009:

[concerning the ban on SIAI discussion during the first weeks of LW] I think it was so that newcomers wouldn't think that LW are a bunch of fringe technophiles that just want to have their cause associated with rationality.

And in reply:

But that's pretty much what LW is, no? I've long suspected that "rationality," as discussed here, was a bit of a ruse designed to insinuate a (misleading) necessary connection between being rational and supporting transhumanist ideals.

The quoted text speaks for itself really. So therefore I think LW's admins/web designers should seriously consider replacing the rationality tagline with something more savory.

Wouldn't dropping the rationality tagline instead convince people even more thoroughly that it's not actually about rationality, but rather something else?

That being said, I agree with those concerns. LW doesn't have an agenda per se (beyond being sponsored by the SIAI), but the LW majority clearly does. While harsh, "a bunch of fringe technophiles" accurately describes a significant, and vocal, fraction of people here.

Nowhere have I seen the dangers of AI more focused on than in LessWrong - as such I don't think LessWrong could be accurately summarized as being particularly technophilic.

6Plasmon15y

I wonder if there is such a thing as a non-fringe technophile. Who are they and what do they think/do ? Tech is cool, but further improvement is scary? Tech is cool, but it'll never be able to do (something that sounds scary to many people but is entirely reasonable from a reductionist/materialist perspective) ?

-2hairyfigment15y

Seems to me you could replace "fringe technophiles" with 'white guys not named Harold,' and have just as valid a statement. I assume you mean that your description gets at what a random member of the public would likely notice first. This does seem close to the truth. (Although a more literal account of what they'd perceive first would involve some word like 'rationality' or 'reason', perhaps in connection with the term 'worship'.) But the term "fringe technophiles," by itself, would not lead anyone to expect a community that asks you to justify your belief in detail if you say technology will not destroy the world.

-3

LW's image problem: "Rationality" is suspicious

-3

-3

-3

LW's image problem: "Rationality" is suspicious

-3

-3