[LINK] Another "LessWrongers are crazy" article - this time on Slate

CronoDAS

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?

Is there anything we should do?

When reporters interviewed me about Bitcoin, I tried to point to LW as a potential source of stories and described in a positive way. Several of them showed interest, but no stories came out. I wonder why it's so hard to get positive coverage for LW and so easy to get negative coverage, when in contrast Wired magazine gave Cypherpunks a highly positive cover story in 1993, when Cypherpunks just got started and hadn't done much yet except publish a few manifestos.

Personal contact via the people employed in the Wired magazine and a lot of hackers are quite strong. Wired had actually an intention of pushing projects like Cypherpunks or in the last years the Quantified Self movement which they essentially founded (Keven Kelly and Gary Wolf are both Wired Editors).

I don't think that LW is really the place that needs positive PR. I can't really think of a story about LW that I want to tell a reporter. I can think of stories about MIRI or about CFAR but LW itself doesn't need PR.

23[anonymous]12y

There's an easy answer and a hard answer. The easy answer is that, for whatever reason, the media today is far more likely to run a negative story about the tech industry or associated demographics than to run a positive story about it. LW is close enough to the tech industry, and its assumed/stereotyped demographic pattern is close enough to that of the tech industry, that attacking it is a way to attack the tech industry. Observe: "highly analytical sorts interested in optimizing their thinking, their lives, and the world through mathematics and rationality ... techno-futurism ... high-profile techies like Peter Thiel ... some very influential and wealthy scientists and techies believe it ... computing power ... computers ... computer ... mathematical geniuses Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann ... The ever accelerating progress of technology ... Futurists like science-fiction writer Vernor Vinge and engineer/author Kurzweil ... exponential increases in computing power ... Yudkowsky and Peter Thiel have enthused about cryonics, the perennial favorite of rich dudes ... the machine equivalent of God ... rational action ... a smattering of parallel universes and quantum mechanics on the side ... supercomputer ... supercomputer ... supercomputer ... supercomputer ... autism ... Yudkowsky and other so-called transhumanists are attracting so much prestige and money for their projects, primarily from rich techies ... messianic ambitions, being convinced of your own infallibility, and a lot of cash" Out of the many possible ways to frame the article, Slate chose to make it about "rich techies". Why postulate that Omega has a supercomputer? Why repeat the word 'supercomputer' four times in five sentences? The LW wiki doesn't mention computers of any sort, and the Wikipedia article only uses the word 'computer' twice. advancedatheist said above that the cryonics claim is false; assuming he's right, why include a lie? It's clearly not a neutral explanation of the Basil

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[LINK] Another "LessWrongers are crazy" article - this time on Slate

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[LINK] Another "LessWrongers are crazy" article - this time on Slate

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