Comment author: George 24 February 2010 01:23:39AM 2 points [-]

"I can't think of very many cases in which people endanger themselves or their reproductive chances for the sake of cute animals." A) Drivers swerving to avoid cats and bunnies etc. B) All the warnings about leaving bear cubs alone. I can think of non-cuteness explanations that probably cover some part of each but it seems idle to reject any role for cuteness in those survivability risks.

Comment author: iii 21 October 2012 05:38:05PM *  5 points [-]

I think that any situation that could not have occurred prior to the 20. century can be discarded out of hand when discussing the evolutionary roots of human behavior.

Comment author: iii 14 September 2012 02:16:38PM *  4 points [-]

Inside the Blind Idiot God Evolution's pineal gland is not an immortal soul, but the truth.

I love this thing, we should include it as a site feature next to the comment button and compare user ratings on randomly generated posts to the rest.

Comment author: James_Miller 02 June 2012 01:27:21AM 8 points [-]

But "small talk" seems to be a friendship-enabling technology.

Comment author: iii 02 June 2012 10:52:57PM 5 points [-]

Only make up hasty generalizations when it's entertaining to do so.

Also: if it gets you internet points.

Comment author: iii 28 December 2011 04:15:37PM 4 points [-]

Inexplicable happiness!

Comment author: lessdazed 01 October 2011 08:54:03PM 1 point [-]

A perfect utility function

As things are perfect in relation to utility functions, I still don't understand.

Comment author: iii 02 October 2011 09:00:00PM 0 points [-]

as in producing the intended result, nothing stopping us from rounding the 1 and winding up as paperclips

Comment author: lessdazed 29 September 2011 10:49:50PM 1 point [-]

a human optimal utility function

This could mean several things. What do you mean?

Comment author: iii 01 October 2011 01:55:24PM 0 points [-]

I'm unfamiliar with the state of our knowledge concerning these things, so take this as you will, A perfect utility function can yield many different things one of which is the adherence to "the principal for the devlopment of value(s) in human beings" which aren't necessary the same as "values that make existing in the universe most probable" or "what people want" or "what people will always want". a human optimal utility function would be something that leads to adressing the human condition as a problem, to improve it in the manner and method it seeks to improve itself, whether that is survivability or something else. An AI that could do this perfectly right now, could always use the same process of extrapolation again for whatever the situation may develop into.

or "AI which is most instrumentally useful for (all) human beings given our most basic goals"

Comment author: iii 29 September 2011 09:52:36PM 0 points [-]

So we could just build a seed AI whose utility function is to produce a human optimal utility function?

In response to comment by atucker on Needing Better PR
Comment author: JAlfredPrufrock 19 August 2011 02:32:20PM 1 point [-]

That's a good question. Off the top of my head, I can't point to any specific post or comment. I could go through a look for examples, but that feels like clever arguing.

Maybe a better approach could be to just continue reading and make a note of whenever I see an example?

Like most stereotypes, this is something that just sorta "feels" true. But it also "feels" like it comes out more so in the comments than in the posts. This raises a couples issues. First, is it actually true? Second, if it isn't true, why does it "feel" true? Third, should we and could we do anything about it?

Comment author: iii 23 August 2011 11:15:29PM 0 points [-]

I doubt that a site that expects to entertain with college level math comprehension is ever going to ditch that image completely, but it should definitely be a goal.

Comment author: iii 23 August 2011 09:40:52PM 0 points [-]

Pardon me, but this seems to have little to nothing to do with whether utilitarianism should be considered a superior moral framework or not (if this has never been the point I apologize). If anything the article seems to lend evidence to the claim that given certain circumstances psychopaths tend to be more moral than the average individual, why stigmatizing a mental disorder and not its consequences is still tolerated in a society that seems to ostensibly have developed neural imaging is also up for debate.

Comment author: akshatrathi 10 August 2010 04:32:20PM *  3 points [-]

That's a really nice view to have on emotions. And frankly, I've known it all along but never put it the way you have. Cheers!

What bothers me is that in case of 'emotional expressions' in a profession, it is possible to fake it and am sure we have seen examples of such (hypocrites) in our life. But may be in a given situation it is rational to fake it.

PS: Could you give the source of the Hitler example?

Comment author: iii 21 June 2011 05:01:09PM 2 points [-]

It sounds plausible, but I think its something of a premature conclusion. Consider how one would best fake an emotion: simply by motivating oneself to feel that way. Faking an expression is much much harder than simply choosing a field that matches your own moods and preferences. The reason we see people who don't appear genuine in high ranking positions as well as very low ones is that they are motivated by something other than the above, a drive for excellence or desperation where feelings do become a tool, but thinking in terms of the majority its easier to assume convention and self-discipline makes most peoples professionalism indistinguishable from any other motivator they might feel.

View more: Next