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I don't suppose there's a non-Flash version of the article?
In response to
[Link] Article about rationality and CFAR
Wordpress version now up. http://nervemag.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/why-are-smart-people-so-stupid/
In response to
[Link] Article about rationality and CFAR
Julia Galef is quoted as Julie Galef on page 21.
Good catch. Just chatting to the editor to try to get this fixed - apparently there's a problem with the edit feature on issuu.
ETA: unfortunately it can't be changed. It can be re-uploaded but then they'd lose the view stats.
In response to
[Link] Article about rationality and CFAR
The brief description of Less Wrong in that article will sound very strange to anyone not already familiar with us.
I guess it does a little - the piece was edited slightly from my original submission. I don't think it sounds all that strange, though I'm almost certainly biased on that front...
In response to
[Link] Article about rationality and CFAR
I don't suppose there's a non-Flash version of the article?
It'll be going up on Wordpress soon: http://nervemag.wordpress.com/
I would love to see a discussion of privilege in terms of biases. Obvious ones include: attribution errors (fundamental & ultimate); system justification; outgroup homogeneity & ingroup superiority biases.
I hadn't considered the availability heuristic but yes, that's probably relevant too.
That's actually a really interesting thought. I am white and male and straight and am very aware of my privilege, and also am very interested in heuristics and biases and how they are part of our thought patterns. I consider myself very much a feminist, and also a realist in terms of how people actually work compared with how people would like each other to work. I might brood on this for a bit and write about it.
In response to
The wandering rationalist
If you go southward to get to Chicago, instead of northward, you can go past NYC, Philadelphia, and Columbus, which all have active meetup groups. If you come to Columbus, I'll happily put you up!
That's not a bad idea - except I have a friend in Lansing, MI I said I'd look up on the way. If I do too many zig-zags it will raise hell with my schedule, and I've spent a lot of time on the East Coast fairly recently. Still... I'll think about it.
In response to
Meetup : SLC, UT: Free Will and Rationality Checklists
Hello,
Not sure if any SLCers have seen this thread:
http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/e9t/the_wandering_rationalist/
...but I'll be travelling through SLC sometime in December and it would be great to meet some of you if you're planning another meetup around that time. Offers of hanging out and accommodation gratefully received!
In response to
Expected utility and utility after time
This runs into the "experiencing self" vs "remembering self" distinction. Conceptually it seems very troublesome to perform expected utility calculations on behalf of the experiencing self - the one who would suffer the pains in the above scenario.
From the perspective of the remembering self, pain only matters if it leaves a trace: if you can remember it, or if (unconsciously) it changes the choices you'd make in similar situations in future.
(Think of Sammy Jenkis in the movie Memento who was shown to not be a "true" amnesiac - he avoided picking up toys that had been previously rigged to give him electric shock, even though he behaved as though he had no memory of the past shocks. Yes, this is a fictional example - but despite being fictional it validly highlights a distinction lurking below the surface of the word "memory".)
From this perspective the disutility of the "hell" scenario consists only of the opportunity cost, i.e. while suffering hell you could instead have been doing something pleasant that you'd have remembered afterwards. But deleting the memories, and deleting any dispositions you may have acquired as a result of experiencing the pain, and so on - essentially restoring you to a previous backup - the deleted pain will not count from the perspective of the remembering self.
(Noting the "backup" analogy in the previous paragraph, I have to acknowledge that my intuitions in this may be shaped in part by my experiences playing video games...)
As I recall from my readings on amnesia, having no conscious recollection of events but nevertheless having an unconscious preference (or lack of preference) is fairly common. Essentially patients have impaired declarative (explicit) memory but some spared implicit perceptual and motor memory. So the fictional example of Sammy Jenkis is actually quite reality-based.
What needs to be distinguished in this scenario is whether Omega is only wiping your declarative memory or if he's also going in and getting rid of your implicit memory as well, which takes care of lower-level responses to stimuli that might otherwise cause problems after the event.
My favorite way to cross the US, especially if you're not in a hurry, is by Amtrak train, though I don't have too much experience with buses (Amtrak or otherwise; I've taken one Amtrak bus and no Greyhound buses). Train tickets tend to be cost-competitive with bus tickets, except that the routes are way more limited. (Their train route map is here, and so you can see that going from Minneapolis to Oklahoma City requires going east then south then west then north, rather than just south, but you may end up having to do similar things on buses.)
If you're old enough, renting a car might be a good option, especially if you want to do a lot of touristy stuff.
I've done Amtrak before and I quite liked it. What I'm wavering on is whether to buy the $450 30-day bus pass which allows me unlimited travel for that period or be a bit riskier and hope I'll find enough rides to get me across for cheaper. I need to sit down and do the research and the maths really.
I can rent a car for sure (I'm 31) but I haven't driven in ten years and considering it'll be December I'm not confident in my driving ability in bad weather conditions...
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I will hopefully be in New Zealand in January, just passing through. Keep me informed!