Comment author: Xerographica 20 April 2015 04:37:57PM 1 point [-]

I love information and economics... so I read through some of your material... but I'm really not sure what problem you're trying to solve.

Comment author: Xerographica 16 April 2015 12:28:22AM 0 points [-]

Just create a subreddit for the meet up. You can post/vote(up/down) comments/questions/topics before/during/after the meeting.

Of course it would work even better if people could "quarters up" their favorite posts. Why would it work better? Because it would allow participants to quantify their interest in the various comments/questions/topics. Plus, how cool would it be to get paid for being an excellent poster?

Comment author: gjm 05 April 2015 04:02:35PM 1 point [-]

In other words, you have this bizarre double standard [...]

Oh gods, you're doing that again. "How dare you be talking about something other than my pet issue! That proves you're on the wrong side of my pet issue, which proves you're inconsistent and insincere!"

There is a reason why you keep getting "swamped with downvotes". That reason is that you are wasting other people's time and attention, and appear not to care. As long as you continue to behave in this obnoxious and antisocial fashion, you will continue to get swamped with downvotes. And, not coincidentally, your rudeness and obtuseness will incline people to think less favourably of your proposal. If someone else more reasonable comes along with an economic proposal like yours, the first reaction of people who've interacted with you here is likely to be that bit more negative because they'll associate the idea with rudeness and obtuseness.

Please consider whether that is really what you want.

Comment author: Xerographica 05 April 2015 10:08:02PM -1 points [-]

In the comment that you replied to, I calmly and rationally explained with exceptionally sound logic why my "pet issue" (the efficient allocation of resources) is relevant to the subject of "unfriendly" AI.

Did you calmly and rationally explain why the efficient allocation of resources is not relevant to "unfriendly" AI? Nope.

Nobody on this forum is forced to read or respond to my comments. And obviously I'm not daunted by criticism. So unlike this guy, I'm not going to bravely run away from an abundance of economic ignorance.

And if my calm and rational comments are driving you so crazy... then perhaps it would behoove you to find the bias in your bonnet.

Is Pragmatarianism (Tax Choice) Less Wrong?

-16 Xerographica 12 February 2015 04:47AM

I sure think it is!  But I could be wrong...

This is my first article/post? here and to be honest, I have this website open in another tab and I keep refreshing it to see if I still have enough points to post.  I wish I would have taken a screenshot every time my karma changed.  First it was 0, then it was -1, then it was back to 0, then I think it jumped up to 5.  I thought I was safe but then this morning it was down to 0.  So if this post seems "linky" then it might be because I'm trying to share as much information as I can while my window of opportunity is still open.  

Pragmatarianism (tax choice) is the belief that taxpayers should be able to choose where their taxes go.  Tax choice is the broad concept while pragmatarianism is my own personal spin on it... but sometimes I use "tax choice" when I mean pragmatarianism.  Eh, at this point I don't think it's a big deal.  Really the only thing nice about the word "pragmatarianism" is that it functions as a unique ID... which is extremely helpful when it comes to searches.  Don't have to worry about wading through irrelevant results. 

Here are some links from my blog which should help you decide whether pragmatarianism is more or less wrong...

Pragmatarianism FAQ - a good place to start.  It's pretty short.  

Key concepts - a work in progress.  Some of the concepts are linked to entries which have PDF files with a bunch of relevant quotes and passages.  If you like any of them then please share them in this thread... Quotes Repository.  I shared a few but they didn't fare so well... so I'm guessing that most people here aren't fans of economics... or they aren't fans of my economics. 

Progress as a Function of Freedom - hedging bets, the impossibility of hostile aliens, the problem with "rights".  

What Do Coywolves, Mr. Nobody, Plants And Fungi All Have In Common? - the universal drive to choose the most valuable option, the carrying model as an explanation for our intelligence, a bit on rationality.

Builderism - where better options come from, globalization, debunking Piketty, eliminating poverty. 

My Robin Hanson trilogy...

Is Robin Hanson's Path To Efficient Voting Pragmatic Or Brilliant Or Both? - maybe we should have a civic currency?

Rescuing Robin Hanson From Unmet Demand - how many other people are in the same boat?

Futarchy vs Pragmatarianism - is it logically inconsistent to support one but not the other?  

/trilogy.

AI Box Experiment vs Xero's Rule - my first brainstorm attempt to wrap my mind around the idea of an AI box.

Is A Procreation License Consistent With Libertarianism? - would a procreation license be less wrong?

Why I Love Your Freedom - my critique of the best critique of libertarianism.  A bit on rationality.

So what do you think?  Am I in the right place?  

What else?  Of course I'm an atheist!  And I love sci-fi... and for sure I want to live forever.  The major obstacle is that too many people fail to grasp that progress depends on difference.  I do my best to try and eliminate this obstacle.  Unfortunately I suck at writing and my drawings are even worse.  Oh well.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Comment author: Transfuturist 11 February 2015 02:16:57AM 3 points [-]

If categorical refusal is the only way to guarantee a gatekeeper's win, then there's no point in running the experiment. I'm not interested in seeing the obvious results of categorical refusal, I want to see the kind of reasoning, arguments, appeals, memes, manipulations, and deals (that mere humans can come up with) that would allow a boxed AI to escape. There's no point to the entire thing if you are emulating a rock on the floor.

Comment author: Xerographica 11 February 2015 02:49:36AM 0 points [-]

I agree... but honestly I'm not very familiar with the entire concept. If an equivalently intelligent alien from another planet visited us would we also want to stick it in a box? What if it was a super smart human from the future? Box him too? Why stop there? Maybe we should have boxed Einstein and it's not too late to box Hawking and Tao.

For some reason I'm a little stuck on the part where we reverse the idea that individuals are innocent until proven otherwise. Justice for me but not for thee?

It wouldn't seem very rational to argue that every exceptionally intelligent individual should be incarcerated until they can prove their innocent intentions to less intelligent individuals. What's the basis? Does more intelligence mean less morality?

When trying to figure out where to draw the line... the entire thought exercise of boxing up a sentient being by virtue of its exceptional intelligence... makes me feel a bit like a member of a lynch mob.

Comment author: cleonid 10 February 2015 01:49:21PM 2 points [-]

GovA doesn't know why you exited and GovB doesn't know why you entered.

This is true for individual migrants. In case of large migration waves (e.g., East Germany to West Germany), the reasons are usually obvious.

Comment author: Xerographica 10 February 2015 07:43:33PM 0 points [-]

I'm not necessarily sure we can attribute the improvements of boycotted governments to mass exodus / brain drain. Many people left China when Mao Zedong took control. But after Deng Xiaoping took control and improved China... I'm not sure if it was because so many people left or because so many of the surrounding countries were prospering while China was suffering. Now that so many of the brains have returned to China... I can't help but wonder how much this increases China's chances of further improvements.

But even if you're correct... my point still stands regarding the rate of improvement. Right now everybody in the world dislikes one or more of their government's policies. So why doesn't everybody leave? Clearly it's because the benefits (ie their family, friends, favorite restaurant, etc.) outweigh the costs. As a result, the bad traits continue to persist. We'd improve at a much faster rate if it was easy for people to boycott/divest from the bad traits without having to boycott/divest from all the traits in the geographical area.

When I left cable for Netflix... I left one bundle of content for another bundle of content. Obviously I do not prefer the components of the bundles equally. Neither cable nor Netflix knows which of their components I prefer more and which I prefer less. In the absence of this important information... they have to make these uniformed guesses. Improvements can be made... but improvements would be made a lot faster if they had a lot more accurate information regarding my preferences and everybody else's preferences.

Maybe rating movies on Netflix helps provide information regarding people's preferences? Well... if rating is an effective mechanism for communicating preferences... then couldn't we say the same thing about voting?

In response to Quotes Repository
Comment author: Xerographica 10 February 2015 09:48:28AM 0 points [-]

So far as this is the case, it is evident that government, by excluding or even by superseding individual agency, either substitutes a less qualified instrumentality for one better qualified, or at any rate substitutes its own mode of accomplishing the work, for all the variety of modes which would be tried by a number of equally qualified persons aiming at the same end; a competition by many degrees more propitious to the progress of improvement than any uniformity of system. - J.S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy with some of their Applications to Social Philosophy

In response to Quotes Repository
Comment author: Xerographica 10 February 2015 09:34:21AM 1 point [-]

But have you ever asked yourselves sufficiently how much the erection of every ideal on earth has cost? How much reality has had to be misunderstood and slandered, how many lies have had to be sanctified, how many consciences disturbed, how much "God" sacrificed every time? If a temple is to be erected a temple must be destroyed: that is the law - let anyone who can show me a case in which it is not fulfilled! - Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals

In response to Quotes Repository
Comment author: Xerographica 10 February 2015 09:23:07AM *  6 points [-]

The usual touchstone, whether that which someone asserts is merely his persuasion -- or at least his subjective conviction, that is, his firm belief -- is betting. It often happens that someone propounds his views with such positive and uncompromising assurance that he seems to have entirely set aside all thought of possible error. A bet disconcerts him. Sometimes it turns out that he has a conviction which can be estimated at a value of one ducat, but not of ten. For he is very willing to venture one ducat, but when it is a question of ten he becomes aware, as he had not previously been, that it may very well be that he is in error. If, in a given case, we represent ourselves as staking the happiness of our whole life, the triumphant tone of our judgment is greatly abated; we become extremely diffident, and discover for the first time that our belief does not reach so far. Thus pragmatic belief always exists in some specific degree, which, according to differences in the interests at stake, may be large or may be small. - Immanuel Kant , The Critique of Pure Reason

In response to Quotes Repository
Comment author: Xerographica 10 February 2015 09:12:27AM *  0 points [-]

It is thus that the private interests and passions of individuals naturally dispose them to turn their stocks towards the employments which in ordinary cases are most advantageous to the society. But if from this natural preference they should turn too much of it towards those employments, the fall of profit in them and the rise of it in all others immediately dispose them to alter this faulty distribution. Without any intervention of law, therefore, the private interests and passions of men naturally lead them to divide and distribute the stock of every society among all the different employments carried on in it as nearly as possible in the proportion which is most agreeable to the interest of the whole society. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

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