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Quirinus_Quirrell comments on [LINK] Terrorists target AI researchers - Less Wrong Discussion

24 Post author: RobertLumley 15 September 2011 02:22PM

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Comment author: Quirinus_Quirrell 15 September 2011 03:32:37PM 45 points [-]

DO NOT USE YOUR REGULAR IDENTITY TO SAY ANYTHING TRULY INTERESTING ON THIS THREAD, OR ON THIS TOPIC, UNLESS YOU HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT IT FOR FIVE MINUTES.

Comment author: jimrandomh 15 September 2011 05:20:57PM 31 points [-]

You're paranoid. We're only speculating on the motives, identity, and whereabouts of a serial killer, in a public forum. What could possibly go wrong?

Comment author: Hyena 18 September 2011 09:08:50AM 8 points [-]

In general, you would be advised not to say anything on the Internet unless you have thought about it for at least five minutes.

Comment author: Clippy 16 September 2011 08:46:57PM 8 points [-]

Why not? You just did. I'm going to post here with my name even if it does draw negative attention from a fringe group of terrorists.

Comment author: Incorrect 16 September 2011 01:26:02AM 2 points [-]

Why not? (This is a serious question. I don't know why not.)

Comment author: JoshuaZ 16 September 2011 01:42:03AM *  24 points [-]

There are two primary issues.

First, regular identities can be linked to actual people. If someone talks about how they support AI and nanotech research in this specific context it could draw the attention of the group in question.

Second, people in this thread may be tempted to discuss whether there is any actual legitimacy to the viewpoints in question. In general, Less Wrong commentators are probably more oblivious than the most people about how frank discussions can lead to bad results even when they are being discussed in a highly hypothetical fashion. For example, having the SIAI associated with even marginal, theoretical support of terrorist activity in this age could lead to be bad results.

Comment author: Quirinus_Quirrell 16 September 2011 01:21:49PM 9 points [-]

One Quirrell point to JoshuaZ for getting both of the reasons, rather than stopping after just one like jimrandomh did.

(I'm going to stop PGP signing these things, because when I did that before, it was a pain working around Markdown, and it ended up having to be in code-format mode, monospaced and not line broken correctly, which was very intrusive. A signed list of all points issued to date will be provided on request, but I will only bother if a request is actually made.)