I should write about this later. I highly encourage you to. I find it an interesting topic without enough attention (with economic-type broad analysis rather than direct participation not part of public knowledge).

Why should we believe there are "moral truths"? And why are the rules so different with regard to physics? What other topics have a standard more like morality than physics?

I agree with Yvain. The mirror neuron argument was just shoddy. After acknowledging that the science didn't necessarily support your point about them, you then said that doesn't matter. If the truth of an argument is irrelevant, why bring it up at all? Doesn't such an argument falling back on "deeper truth" have the same weaknesses as the religious/mystical in their attempts to avoid falsification?

This is an idea that I think is plausible, although it might be false: Uncle Tom's Cabin was more an epiphenomenon in the demise of slavery than a cause. It is an easy focal point to think of, and so we associate the end of slavery with it. If the book had failed (perhaps through having a lousy publisher or distribution) we would instead point to something else whose fame has been displaced in our own history by Stowe's novel.

Wondering, I like rationality posts.

I'm happy to hear that Eliezer will go back to posting on rationality.

Maybe it's the types I of haunts I've been frequenting lately, but the elimination of all conscious life in the universe doesn't strike me as too terrible at the moment (provided it doesn't shorten my own lifespan).

Dagon, as I explained in Interpersonal Entanglement, it's okay except when it isn't.

My comment got flagged as spam. I'm removing the links now but would appreciate it if this comment was removed when the original gets approved.

I've never understood the fascination with cats, which is perhaps because I'm allergic to them. For misanthropic reasons, I suspect I'd prefer replacing you all with some sort of non-sentient beings (though perhaps not when I'm at my most misanthropic).

He said, "Well, then I'd just modify my brain not to get bored -" And I said: "AAAAIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE" Why? You've just given a frightened response rather than an argument.

well, call me a sentimental Luddite You're a sentimental Luddite.

sterile simplicity "Sterile" is often a good thing and means safe/clean/pure. What is bad about sterile simplicity?

That strikes me as kind of sad. It strikes me as an improvement. People should separate if they are happier that way. Let's hear it for secession!

they aren't just incompetent Is that something you actually believe or an idea you want to discourage for reasons other than truth? I'll be the first to admit having no competence whatsoever.

doesn't strike me as solving the problem so much as running away from it What exactly is the difference? That one sets off alarm lights in your brain while the other lets you think the ship of Theseus still retains its identity?

I'm willing to bet that a few psychological nudges Also known as "modifying your brain". It seems its okay when brains are modified for ends you approve of but not for those of others. Like how eating certain calories "don't count" among people who are supposed to be on a diet.

For myself, I would like humankind to stay together and not yet splinter into separate shards of diversity I suspect you've fallen under the spell of The People's Romance.

Aurini: There is nothing objectively desirable or undesirable. I suspect it would disgust me (I've not bothered to watch the video) but I have a hair-trigger disgust reflex.

I haven't played computer games in a while, but I suspect the game designers know what they're doing better than Eliezer. When he creates a game that people want to play, I'll reconsider.

I would (or should I say "do") want to know if life is worth living, so I can cut my losses in advance.

I don't like surprises. That's part of why I like chain restaurants. That's an area where I am in sync with most people, as evidenced by their success and proliferation.

Zubon, from what I've read of Austrians they laugh at the claim (I think Gunnar Myrdal made it) that you can solve the knowledge/calculation problem with such a computer as a misunderstanding of the problem.

Yvain, you are groping toward one of the oldest forms of democracy.

Let's say I picked the happiest moment in my life (I honestly don't know what that is, but we can ignore that for now). After the Singularity when we can do things currently considered impossible, could I for all practical purposes rewind time and experience that moment again as if it had never happened to shift my hedonic set point?