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nykos comments on Cynical explanations of FAI critics (including myself) - Less Wrong Discussion

21 Post author: Wei_Dai 13 August 2012 09:19PM

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Comment author: nykos 14 August 2012 06:16:34PM *  0 points [-]

The society will be listening to its Einsteins and Feynmans once they band together and figure out how to use the dark arts to take control of the mass-media and universities away from their present owners and use them for their own, more enlightened goals. Or at least ingratiate themselves before the current rulers. They could promise to build new bombs or drones, for example. As for not being interested in solving FAI and these kinds of problems, that's really not a very convincing argument IMO. Throughout history, in societies of high average IQ and a culture tolerant of science, there was never a shortage of people curious about the world. Why wouldn't people with stratospheric IQ be curious about the world and enjoy the challenge of science, especially if they live in a brain-dead society which routinely engages in easy and boring trivialities? I mean, what would you choose between working on FAI or watching the Kardashians? I know what I would, even though my IQ is not very much above average and I'm really bad at probability problems.

There will never be a shortage of nerds and Asperger types out there, at least not for a long time, even with the current dysgenic trends.

Comment author: OrphanWilde 14 August 2012 07:52:22PM 2 points [-]

You assume they'd want to band together, and you also underestimate modern entertainment; Dwarf Fortress, for example.

You also assume they'd care to -share- the products of their curiosity with a brain-dead society.