Slatestarcodex isn't loading for me. It's obviously loading for other people-- I'm getting email notifications of comments. I use chrome.

Anyone have any idea what the problem might be?

If you advocate a point in the middle, you'll have a hard time justifying the choice of that particular point, as opposed to one further up or down.

Trouble with justifying does not necessarily mean that the choice is unjustified.

I like to wash my hands in warm water. I would have a hard time justifying a particular water temperature, as opposed to one slightly colder or slightly warmer. This does not mean that "the only points which have a good reason to be used" are ice-cold water and boiling water.

Unlike Quirrell, Penn Jillette is not referring to "knowing in your heart" that your moral values are correct, but to "knowing in your heart" some matters of fact (which may then serve as a justification for having some moral values, or directly for some action).

It not at all clear that someone who knows all the biochemistry will outperform someone who's good at feeling what goes on in his body.

In the absence of good measurement instruments feelings allow you to respond to specific situations much better than theoretical understanding.

Continuing the use of LW as my source for non-fiction recommendations...

Any suggestions on a decent popular-but-not-too-dumbed-down intro to Economics?

Apologies for the nitpick, but didn't you mean ethnic group?

Why is this a 19? I thought this was a restatement of the "official LW position". Or would people argue that an uploaded kokotajlod wouldn't be the real kokotajlod?

Irrationality game:

Most animals we farm experience reality (including pain) in a human-enough-way that humanity's CEV will be horrified we allowed it to go on as long as we did. 80%

The same applies to most wildlife (most animals' lives have negative utility). 50%

(Note: I waffled on whether or not this was ruled out on the "no preferences disguised as beliefs" rule, but settled on "experience reality" as an empirical-enough question to be, eventually, objectively decided)

Of the 12 most recent posts in 'Discussion', nine are 'Meetup' related and one is a meta-level discussion about producing LW courses.

Is LW imploding into some sort of self-impressed death spiral? Where is the new non-LW meta content? Am I way off, or has the quality of posts significantly diminished over time here?

I'm curious to know what others think.

I wouldn't jump to malice so fast when incompetence suffices as an explanation. Nobody has actually done the proper research. The current sites have found a local maxima and are happy to extract value there. Google got huge by getting people off the site fast when everyone else was building portals.

You will of course get lots of delusionals, and lots of people damaged enough that they are unmatchable anyway. You can't help everybody. But also the point is to improve the result they would otherwise have had. Delusional people do end up finding a match in general, so you just have to improve that to have a win. Perhaps you can fix the incentive by getting paid for the duration of the resulting relationship. (and that has issues by itself, but that's a long conversation)

I don't think the philanthropic angle will help, though having altruistic investors who aren't looking for immediate maximisation of investment is probably a must, as a lot of this is pure research.