Today's post, Don't Believe You'll Self-Deceive was originally published on 09 March 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

It may be wise to tell yourself that you will not be able to successfully deceive yourself, because by telling yourself this, you may make it true.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Moore's Paradox, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Moore's Paradox was originally published on 08 March 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

People often mistake reasons for endorsing a proposition for reasons to believe that proposition.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Belief in Self-Deception, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Belief in Self-Deception was originally published on 05 March 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Deceiving yourself is harder than it seems. What looks like a successively adopted false belief may actually be just a belief in false belief.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was No, Really, I've Deceived Myself, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, No, Really, I've Deceived Myself was originally published on 04 March 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Some people who have fallen into self-deception haven't actually deceived themselves. Some of them simply believe that they have deceived themselves, but have not actually done this.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Teaching the Unteachable, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Teaching the Unteachable was originally published on 03 March 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

There are many things we do that we can't easily understand how we do them. Teaching them is therefore a challenge.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Unteachable Excellence, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Unteachable Excellence was originally published on 02 March 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

If it were possible to teach people reliably how to become exceptional, then it would no longer be exceptional.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Markets are Anti-Inductive, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Markets are Anti-Inductive was originally published on 26 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

The standard theory of efficient markets says that exploitable regularities in the past, shouldn't be exploitable in the future. If everybody knows that "stocks have always gone up", then there's no reason to sell them.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Formative Youth, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Formative Youth was originally published on 24 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

People underestimate the extent to which their own beliefs and attitudes are influenced by their experiences as a child.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was On Not Having an Advance Abyssal Plan, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, On Not Having an Advance Abyssal Plan was originally published on 23 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Don't say that you'll figure out a solution to the worst case scenario if the worst case scenario happens. Plan it out in advance.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Fairness vs. Goodness, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Fairness vs. Goodness was originally published on 22 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

An experiment in which two unprepared subjects play an asymmetric version of the Prisoner's Dilemma. Is the best outcome the one where each player gets as many points as possible, or the one in which each player gets about the same number of points?

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Wise Pretentions v.0, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Wise Pretensions v.0 was originally published on 20 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

An earlier post, on the same topic as yesterday's post.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Pretending to be Wise, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Pretending to be Wise was originally published on 19 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Trying to signal wisdom or maturity by taking a neutral position is very seldom the right course of action.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Against Maturity, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Against Maturity was originally published on 18 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Dividing the world up into "childish" and "mature" is not a useful way to think.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Good Idealistic Books are Rare, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Good Idealistic Books are Rare was originally published on 17 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Much of our culture is the official view, not the idealistic view.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Cynical About Cynicism, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Cynical About Cynicism was originally published on 17 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Much of cynicism seems to be about signaling sophistication, rather than sharing uncommon, true, and important insights.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was An African Folktale, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, An African Folktale was originally published on 16 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

A story that seems to point to some major cultural differences.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was An Especially Elegant Evpsych Experiment, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, An Especially Elegant Evpsych Experiment was originally published on 13 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

An experiment comparing expected parental grief at the death of a child at different ages, to the reproductive success rate of children at that age in a hunter gatherer tribe.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was The Evolutionary-Cognitive Boundary, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, The Evolutionary-Cognitive Boundary was originally published on 12 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

It's worth drawing a sharp boundary between ideas about evolutionary reasons for behavior, and cognitive reasons for behavior.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Cynicism in Ev-Psych (and Econ), and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Cynicism in Ev-Psych (and Econ?) was originally published on 11 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Evolutionary Psychology and Microeconomics seem to develop different types of cynical theories, and are cynical about different things.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Informers and Persuaders, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Informers and Persuaders was originally published on 10 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

A purely hypothetical scenario about a world containing some authors trying to persuade people of a particular theory, and some authors simply trying to share valuable information.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was (Moral) Truth in Fiction?, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, (Moral) Truth in Fiction? was originally published on 09 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

It is possible to convey moral ideas in a clearer way through fiction than through abstract argument. Stories may also help us get closer to thinking about moral issues in near mode. Don't discount moral arguments just because they're written as fiction.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was ...And Say No More Of It, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, ...And Say No More Of It was originally published on 09 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

In the previous couple of months, Overcoming Bias had focused too much on singularity related issues and not enough on rationality. A two month moratorium on the topic of the singularity/intelligence explosion is imposed.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was The Thing That I Protect, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, The Thing That I Protect was originally published on 07 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

The cause that drives Yudkowsky isn't Friendly AI, and it isn't even specifically about preserving human values. It's simply about a future that's a lot better than the present.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Epilogue: Atonement (8/8), and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Epilogue: Atonement (8/8) was originally published on 06 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

The last moments aboard the Impossible Possible World.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was True Ending: Sacrificial Fire, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, True Ending: Sacrificial Fire (7/8) was originally published on 05 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

The Impossible Possible World tries to save humanity.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Normal Ending: Last Tears, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Normal Ending: Last Tears (6/8) was originally published on 04 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Humanity accepts the Superhappies' bargain.

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Today's post, Three Worlds Decide (5/8) was originally published on 03 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

The Superhappies propose a compromise.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Interlude with the Confessor, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Interlude with the Confessor (4/8) was originally published on 02 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Akon talks things over with the Confessor, and receives a history lesson.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was The Super Happy People (3/8), and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, The Super Happy People (3/8) was originally published on 01 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Humanity encounters new aliens that see the existence of pain amongst humans as morally unacceptable.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was War and/or Peace (2/8), and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, War and/or Peace (2/8) was originally published on 31 January 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

The true prisoner's dilemma against aliens. The conference struggles to decide the appropriate course of action.

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Today's post, The Baby-Eating Aliens (1/8) was originally published on 30 January 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Future explorers discover an alien civilization, and learns something unpleasant about their civilization.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Value is Fragile, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Value is Fragile was originally published on 29 January 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

An interesting universe, that would be incomprehensible to the universe today, is what the future looks like if things go right. There are a lot of things that humans value that if you did everything else right, when building an AI, but left out that one thing, the future would wind up looking dull, flat, pointless, or empty. Any Future not shaped by a goal system with detailed reliable inheritance from human morals and metamorals, will contain almost nothing of worth.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was 31 Laws of Fun, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, 31 Laws of Fun was originally published on 26 January 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

A brief summary of principles for writing fiction set in a eutopia.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Higher Purpose, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Higher Purpose was originally published on 23 January 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Having a Purpose in Life consistently shows up as something that increases stated well-being. Of course, the problem with trying to pick out "a Purpose in Life" in order to make yourself happier, is that this doesn't take you outside yourself; it's still all about you. To find purpose, you need to turn your eyes outward to look at the world and find things there that you care about - rather than obsessing about the wonderful spiritual benefits you're getting from helping others. In today's world, most of the highest-priority legitimate Causes consist of large groups of people in extreme jeopardy: Aging threatens the old, starvation threatens the poor, extinction risks threaten humanity as a whole. If the future goes right, many and perhaps all such problems will be solved - depleting the stream of victims to be helped. Will the future therefore consist of self-obsessed individuals, with nothing to take them outside themselves? I suggest, though, that even if there were no large groups of people in extreme jeopardy, we would still, looking around, find things outside ourselves that we cared about - friends, family; truth, freedom... Nonetheless, if the Future goes sufficiently well, there will come a time when you could search the whole of civilization, and never find a single person so much in need of help, as dozens you now pass on the street. If you do want to save someone from death, or help a great many people, then act now; your opportunity may not last, one way or another.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Investing for the Long Slump, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Investing for the Long Slump was originally published on 22 January 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

What should you do if you think that the world's economy is going to stay bad for a very long time? How could such a scenario happen?

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Failed Utopia #4-2, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.

Today's post, Failed Utopia #4-2 was originally published on 21 January 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

A fictional short story illustrating some of the ideas in Interpersonal Entanglement above. (Many commenters seemed to like this story, and some said that the ideas were easier to understand in this form.)

Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).

This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Interpersonal Entanglement, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.

Today's post, 20 January 2009 was originally published on 20 January 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Our sympathy with other minds makes our interpersonal relationships one of the most complex aspects of human existence. Romance, in particular, is more complicated than being nice to friends and kin, negotiating with allies, or outsmarting enemies - it contains aspects of all three. Replacing human romance with anything simpler or easier would decrease the peak complexity of the human species - a major step in the wrong direction, it seems to me. This is my problem with proposals to give people perfect, nonsentient sexual/romantic partners, which I usually refer to as "catgirls" ("catboys"). The human species does have a statistical sex problem: evolution has not optimized the average man to make the average woman happy or vice versa. But there are less sad ways to solve this problem than both genders giving up on each other and retreating to catgirls/catboys.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Sympathetic Minds, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.

Today's post, Sympathetic Minds was originally published on 19 January 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Mirror neurons are neurons that fire both when performing an action oneself, and watching someone else perform the same action - for example, a neuron that fires when you raise your hand or watch someone else raise theirs. We predictively model other minds by putting ourselves in their shoes, which is empathy. But some of our desire to help relatives and friends, or be concerned with the feelings of allies, is expressed as sympathy, feeling what (we believe) they feel. Like "boredom", the human form of sympathy would not be expected to arise in an arbitrary expected-utility-maximizing AI. Most such agents would regard any agents in its environment as a special case of complex systems to be modeled or optimized; it would not feel what they feel.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was In Praise of Boredom, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.

Today's post, In Praise of Boredom was originally published on 18 January 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

"Boredom" is an immensely subtle and important aspect of human values, nowhere near as straightforward as it sounds to a human. We don't want to get bored with breathing or with thinking. We do want to get bored with playing the same level of the same video game over and over. We don't want changing the shade of the pixels in the game to make it stop counting as "the same game". We want a steady stream of novelty, rather than spending most of our time playing the best video game level so far discovered (over and over) and occasionally trying out a different video game level as a new candidate for "best". These considerations would not arise in most utility functions in expected utility maximizers.

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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Getting Nearer, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.

Today's post, Getting Nearer was originally published on 17 January 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

How should a rationalist use their near and far modes of thinking? And how should knowing about near vs far modes influence how we present the things we believe to other people.

Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).

This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Seduced by Imagination, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.