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Since it's basically a log scale in terms of outcomes, the T-shirt store might be a 0.
-10 would be "I will make a generic post on LW."
It would be a fun exercise to flesh out the negative side of the scale.
In response to
The Yudkowsky Ambition Scale
Just one suggestion: come up with a new goal to put at the top of the list, and shift the rest down. That way, "how to hack into the computer our universe is running on" would be "up to 11" on the list.
The new #1 item could be something like "We're going to make yet another novelty t-shirt store!"
(You are currently pursuing the question of fighting capability of nerds. What valuable lessons does this help anyone to learn? Alicorn's comment that triggered this thread contained a general point ("be less free with generalizations"), but such points don't seem to be present in the consequent discussion.)
I remember once we had a big Open Thread argument about Pirates Vs Ninjas. IIRC it involved dozens of posts and when somebody pointed out that it had gone on too long, and how silly it had become, somebody else argued that it was, in fact, a useful rationality exercise.
Perhaps this [edit: cutting the conversation short] is a sign that the community has matured in some way.
If I expect to be hit by a train, I certainly don't expect a ~68% survival chance. Not intuitively, anyways.
I'm guessing that even if you survive, your quality of life is going to take a hit. Accounting for this will probably bring our intuitive expectation of harm closer to the actual harm.
In response to
Dealing with meta-discussion and the signal to noise ratio
Test
Edit: Evidently karma loss only applies to downvoted comments, and not downvoted threads.
Thanks Xachariah, this question had occurred to me also, it's nice to see that someone else already took the risk.
In response to
[Link] Short story by Yvain
This is a Christ's point of view. A Christian just knows, that one of those Christs was the real one. Most probably the first one, also known as "the real one".
It's a great story, though.
EDIT: I should wrote "A Christian just knows" inside quotation marks. He thinks he knows. (As we all always do. We think we know, and sometimes we actually do know.)
If Jesus could see the entirety of history, then he could see whether he is the first "Jesus Christ". Given that the extra Christs are all explained by delusional patients copying the first Christ, this would be some sort of evidence (to himself) whether he is the real one.
Counterpoint: as Satan explains, it's all a hallucination anyway.
This is a most excellent point, that I need to consider more. Honestly I have no desire to force people to "Truth", but I do want the liberty to seek it and act on it. If this means my segregation or secession from the vast majority of humanity and posthumanity, since they can't be protected in any other way, so be it.
It just occurred to me that this is basically the state of humanity in Brave New World.
To memory, that description of The Dilbert Future sounds accurate, but I think it misses the fact that the book was not meant to be taken seriously. Given the extent to which Dilbert relies on absurdity, I do not find it particularly likely that an intelligent and relatively skeptical person like Scott Adams meant for it to be taken as truth.
I would rank explanations for what he said in the following order of likeliness:
It's a joke
He meant for readers to ponder absurd ideas for the sake of mind-expansion,
He actually believes it.
I happen to have a copy of The Dilbert Future. You're right that Scott Adams writes mainly for comedy. However, the end section of The Dilbert Future is more serious. Adams actually writes, "I'm turning the humor mode off for this chapter because what you're going to read is so strange that you'd be waiting for the punch line instead of following the point." And without re-reading the whole thing, as i recall his tone is about as serious as he promises. The serious chapter includes some quantum physics speculation, but the main idea Adams advocates is affirmations, which he ties into part of his life story.
what's "phygish"?
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What? About the same as the what you could write in comments already but prettier.