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eternal_neophyte comments on What are "the really good ideas" that Peter Thiel says are too dangerous to mention? - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: James_Miller 12 April 2015 09:07PM

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Comment author: eternal_neophyte 13 April 2015 05:36:45PM *  0 points [-]

the rules of this game are: "Invent a controversial political idea and pretend that it is the idea Peter Thiel is trying to hide."

Who's saying to pretend that Thiel actually holds whatever idea some particular person thinks he does? Why would anyone take such idle speculation seriously?

You get points for the idea being controversial; you don't lose points if it is not Thiel's idea. So why not simply post the most controversial idea you have?

Judging by the distribution of likes in over other comments here, the most controversial (by which I mean "NRx-y" for now) ideas don't seem to be great point-winners. So I think the community itself should be credited with posessing some common sense.

We are invited to abuse the man's name as a pretext to publish our controversial ideas. Why not use our own names then? ... They will just use Thiel's name to add status to their own ideas.

Again I think you're selling short the capacity of others to avoid frivolously drawing spurious conclusions. Crediting others with basic powers of reason is, I think, a necessary starting point in order to have any kind of rationalist community whatsoever.

Comment author: Viliam 14 April 2015 07:32:15AM 1 point [-]

Internet is a public place. So even if all LW readers would understand what this is all about (creating a place to post mostly NRx-y ideas, while pretending to talk about Peter Thiel), a random visitor would see Peter Thiel in the title and the ideas below. Most people are not driven by the power of reason, but by the power of associations, which is what we are creating in this thread. If the man did not present the ideas as his own, then his name should not be in the title.

Also, Peter Thiel happens to be a sponsor of MIRI, which makes it seem more credible when people talk about "his" ideas on a website associated with MIRI.

Comment author: eternal_neophyte 14 April 2015 01:06:13PM 1 point [-]

Peter Thiel happens to be a sponsor of MIRI, which makes it seem more credible when people talk about "his" ideas on a website associated with MIRI.

That's a valid concern indeed.

even if all LW readers would understand what this is all about (creating a place to post mostly NRx-y ideas, while pretending to talk about Peter Thiel), a random visitor would see Peter Thiel in the title and the ideas below

Random visitors who are prone to poor reasoning in all sorts of creative ways could stumble across almost anything and draw wildly inaccurate conclusions about what they read. I don't see any reasons that the opinions of such persons should be much of a threat to anyone but themselves.

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