Comment author: 75th 15 May 2012 12:02:36AM 2 points [-]

What makes you so sure that magical-love-protection exists in MoR at all? Eliezer already changed the Godric's Hollow script to allow other likely possibilities.

Comment author: Locke 15 May 2012 01:24:28AM 1 point [-]

I think Harry's Memories of Godric's Hollow are supposed to tell us that Quirrell knew better then to allow the sacrifice to take place, not that it just doesn't exist. I think we'd probably know if Eliezer had completely removed it, just as he explained his nerfing of Unbreakable vows.

Comment author: Locke 14 May 2012 10:36:18PM *  2 points [-]

Even though Harry doesn't have magical-love-protection, I think we should take note of the fact that it's probably still in play and fairly broken.

If Quirrell could get Bellatrix to take a deadly spell from for him, he'd have Love's permanent protection against Dumbledore(if that were the caster). And, with the right amount of cleverness, he could probably arrange for her death to protect all death-eaters in the same way Harry provided protection to all of Hogwarts.

Frankly I wouldn't put it past Dumbledore to arrange for something similiar, for the greater good.

Comment author: [deleted] 01 May 2012 02:15:19AM 4 points [-]

Hindu is not a language. Did you mean Hindi?

Comment author: Locke 01 May 2012 03:41:05AM 4 points [-]

I believe I do.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 30 April 2012 10:50:14PM 14 points [-]

Americans being more willing to be weird could explain both rationality as a project and religiosity.

Comment author: Locke 30 April 2012 10:51:59PM 4 points [-]

What reason do you have to believe we're more inclined to weirdness?

Comment author: Incorrect 30 April 2012 10:38:05PM 8 points [-]

If we take Religion as any indication of irrationality then America should be one of the least rational countries in the world.

If you consider America homogenous but then you're probably using an insufficient model.

Comment author: Locke 30 April 2012 10:50:39PM 2 points [-]

I realize that even a small percentage of English-speakers is still a huge number of people, but I don't think it's more than half of all the potential rationalists in the world.

A few questions on International Rationality

15 Locke 30 April 2012 10:27PM

Disclaimer: I'm still fairly new here, and though I did use the search bar it's entirely possible this has been discussed before. Just point me in the right direction if this is so.

 

While reading about 4chan's Japanese progenitor website, it occurred to me that I know nothing about the state of rationality in the non-English-speaking world, and more specifically the non-English-speaking internet. Is there a Russian version of SIAI? A Japanese Less Wrong? What about Korean Robin Hansons and Eliezer Yudkowskys?

If we take Religion as any indication of irrationality then America should be one of the least rational countries in the world. So if there are like-minded individuals out there speaking in languages we don't know, are we doing anything to collaborate with them? Do they have their own sequences and their own HPMORs which we could be reading?

And if there are no Singularitarian, Cryonics-Supporting, Utilitarianism-Advocating websites for the majority of the human race, isn't that a huge deal? Aren't Europeans and Asians more likely to be open to rationality, if only because of their atheism? If we want Friendly-AI to be developed, should we be translating the sequences into Chinese and Hindu as quickly as possible?

Comment author: LKtheGreat 24 April 2012 02:04:46PM 1 point [-]

I could benefit from using the hiatus time to reread MOR and make notes of anything that seems significant in light of 85 chapters' worth of perspective. This would be even more productive if some number of us read and analyzed together, I believe. Anyone care to join in such an endeavour?

Comment author: Locke 24 April 2012 02:17:45PM 0 points [-]

I think the subredddit is already doing so.

Comment author: drethelin 22 April 2012 04:26:29AM -1 points [-]

Laziness and lack of information

Comment author: Locke 22 April 2012 05:48:07AM 1 point [-]

Isn't Less Wrong supposed to be partially about counteracting those? The topic must have come up at some point in the sequences.

Comment author: FiftyTwo 22 April 2012 03:40:41AM 2 points [-]

Good question.

Its probably easier to list things they shouldn't be doing that are known to significantly reduce life expectancy (e.g. smoking). I would guess it would mainly be obvious things like exercise and diet, but it would be interesting to see the effects quantified.

Comment author: Locke 22 April 2012 04:10:18AM 0 points [-]

What about vitamins/medication? Isn't Ray Kurzweil on like fifty different pills? Why isn't everyone?

Comment author: Locke 22 April 2012 02:21:02AM 10 points [-]

What practical things should everyone be doing to extend their lifetimes?

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