Since LW is going to get a lot of visitors someone should put an old post that would make an excellent first impression in a prominent position. I nominate How to Be Happy.
The problem isn't that easy to solve. Consider that MIRI, then SIAI, already had a bad name before Roko's post, and before I ever voiced any criticism. Consider this video from an actual AI conference, from March 2010, a few months before Roko's post. Someone in the audience makes the following statement:
Whenever I hear the Singularity Institute talk I feel like they are a bunch of religious nutters...
Or consider the following comment by Ben Goertzel from 2004:
Anyway, I must say, this display of egomania and unpleasantness on the part of SIAI folks makes me quite glad that SIAI doesn’t actually have a viable approach to creating AGI (so far, anyway…).
And this is Yudkowsky's reply:
[...] Striving toward total rationality and total altruism comes easily to me. [...] I’ll try not to be an arrogant bastard, but I’m definitely arrogant. I’m incredibly brilliant and yes, I’m proud of it, and what’s more, I enjoy showing off and bragging about it. I don’t know if that’s who I aspire to be, but it’s surely who I am. I don’t demand that everyone acknowledge my incredible brilliance, but I’m not going to cut against the grain of my nature, either. The next time someone incredulously asks, “You think you’re so smart, huh?” I’m going to answer, “Hell yes, and I am pursuing a task appropriate to my talents.” If anyone thinks that a Friendly AI can be created by a moderately bright researcher, they have rocks in their head. This is a job for what I can only call Eliezer-class intelligence.
LessWrong would have to somehow distance itself from MIRI and Eliezer Yudkowsky.
LessWrong would have to somehow distance itself from MIRI and Eliezer Yudkowsky.
And become just another procrastination website.
Okay, there is still CFAR here. Oh wait, they also have Eliezer in the team! And they believe they can teach the rest of the world to become more rational. How profoundly un-humble or, may I say, cultish? Scratch the CFAR, too.
While we are at it, let's remove the articles "Tsuyoku Naritai!", "Tsuyoku vs. the Egalitarian Instinct" and "A Sense That More Is Possible". They contain the same arrogant i...
WARNING: Memetic hazard.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/07/roko_s_basilisk_the_most_terrifying_thought_experiment_of_all_time.html?wpisrc=obnetwork
Is there anything we should do?