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Alicorn comments on I've had it with those dark rumours about our culture rigorously suppressing opinions - Less Wrong Discussion

26 Post author: Multiheaded 25 January 2012 05:43PM

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Comment author: Alicorn 28 January 2012 10:45:17PM *  8 points [-]

Good point, but what if the minority culture's values differ on this?

For some reason my brain decided to recast this question as though the minority culture were a corporation selling a product at a price (non-full-inclusion in majority culture translated into money). If people don't want to buy it, sucks to be you! I don't care if your values say they ought to or if it will make you sad. Change product or market product but do not force its purchase on anyone.

Comment author: CaveJohnson 28 January 2012 10:57:57PM *  9 points [-]

You do realize we are talking about retention of children raised in a culture right? Orgasmium cults and brainwashing indoctrinators would tend to out compete most others by such measures. A cult worshipping a baslisk that hacks your brain into absolute loyalty would also win out.

Optimizing for allure will not optimize for welfare. At least not under these mechanisms of "choice". It also means our value sets can be out competed by really convincing paperclippers.

From the perspective of many traditional cultures Westerners may as well be Supper Happy people.

Comment author: Strange7 06 February 2012 04:44:27AM 4 points [-]

The problem with 'orgasmium cults' is, they have a hard time producing anything valuable enough to outsiders to be able to maintain economic power proportionate to their nominal population. Eventually it's just a heap of functionally insensate larvae starving themselves into irrelevance.

Comment author: Alicorn 28 January 2012 10:59:52PM 3 points [-]

I thought we'd drifted away from that particular spin on the scenario as of erratio's comment.

Comment author: CaveJohnson 28 January 2012 11:12:10PM *  4 points [-]

The above holds for either. Erratio's formulation was:

It sounds very much like you're saying that no one would choose to be part of a minority culture if they weren't forced into it by non-acceptance.

I think it would be trivial by a superinteligence to design a culture that no one would choose any other culture over, yet wouldn't be a very pleasant place to live. And if superinteligence can do this, why could something like this arise due to memetic evolution? Religious and ideological memeplexes are already examples of weaker but dangerous beasts of this kind.

Comment author: Alicorn 28 January 2012 11:14:15PM 1 point [-]

You keep editing your comments after you post them and then my replies look really poorly targeted.

Comment author: CaveJohnson 28 January 2012 11:21:19PM *  3 points [-]

I don't ever modify them after reading someone else's statements. It is just that I often post and then reread my comment and find a point is in need of clarification and immediately hit edit and start fixing it. Most of the time no one notices since responses come 5 or 15 or 200 minutes later.

But if you'd like to keep this more real-timeish, I have no problem from with waiting longer before hitting "comment" and then leaving them unchanged. Sorry for any inconvenience. In any case weren't the above two comments last modified before you posted yours?

Comment author: Alicorn 28 January 2012 11:27:51PM 1 point [-]

Before I posted mine, maybe - I didn't check - but I was on a static page referring to an unedited parent when I wrote my replies.

Comment author: CaveJohnson 28 January 2012 11:28:59PM *  3 points [-]

Ok from now on I won't modify comments after posting for this debate.

Edit: Starting after this one!

Comment author: Luke_A_Somers 14 February 2012 08:48:05PM 2 points [-]

Or you can just include edits as "Edited to add: X" Then it's perfectly clear, and you can edit freely. You just can't prove that's all you did.

Comment author: CaveJohnson 28 January 2012 11:16:14PM *  2 points [-]

If people don't want to buy it, sucks to be you!

From what kind of a position are people choosing to buy? The veil of ignorance? Lol.

You can't choose to buy or not buy a spot somewhere in mind-space without already being somewhere in mind-space.