shokwave

I went from ardently two-boxing to ardently one-boxing when I read that you shouldn't envy someone's choices. More general than that, actually; I had a habit of thinking "alas, if only I could choose otherwise!" about aspects of my identity and personality, and reading that post changed my mind on those aspects pretty rapidly.

Replying toWhat do rationalists think about the afterlife?

shokwave12y

What do rationalists think about the afterlife?

An extreme form of brain damage might be destruction of the entire brain. I don't think that someone with their entire brain removed has consciousness but lacks the ability to communicate it; suggesting that consciousness continues after death seems to me to be pushing well beyond what we understand "consciousness" to refer to.

Replying toWhat do rationalists think about the afterlife?

shokwave12y

What do rationalists think about the afterlife?

The brain seems to be something that leads to consciousness, but is it the only thing?

Maybe other things can "lead to" consciousness as well, but what makes you suspect that humans have redundant ways of generating consciousness? Brain damage empirically causes damage to consciousness, so that pretty clearly indicates that the brain is where we get our consciousness from.

If we had redundant ways of generating consciousness, we'd expect that brain damage would simply shift the consciousness generation role to our other redundant system, so there wouldn't be consciousness damage from brain damage (in the same way that damage to a car's engine wouldn't damage its ability to accelerate if it had redundant engines). But we don't see this.

we don't really know.

We know there's no afterlife. What work is "really know" doing in this sentence, that is capable of reversing what we know about the afterlife?

Replying toOpen Thread March 31 - April 7 2014

shokwave12y

Open Thread March 31 - April 7 2014

Well, in dath ilan, people do still die, even though they're routinely cryonically frozen. I suspect with an intelligence explosion death becomes very rare (or horrifically common, like, extinction).

Replying toOpen thread, 24-30 March 2014

shokwave12y

Open thread, 24-30 March 2014

I'd caution that suspecting (out loud) that she might develop an exercise disorder would be one of those insulting or belittling things you were worried about (either because it seems like a cheap shot based on the anorexia diagnosis, or because this might be one approach to actually getting out from under the anorexia by exerting control over her body).

Likely a better approach to this concern would be to silently watch for those behaviours developing and worry about it if and when it actually does happen. (Note that refusing to help her with training and diet means she gets this help from someone who is not watching out for the possibility... (read more)

Replying toTerrorist baby down the well: a look at institutional forces

shokwave12y

Terrorist baby down the well: a look at institutional forces

It seems like the War on Terror, etc, are not actually about prevention, but about "cures".

Some drug addiction epidemic or terrorist attack happens. Instead of it being treated as an isolated disaster like a flood, which we should (but don't) invest in preventing in the future, it gets described as an ongoing War which we need to win. This puts it firmly in the "ongoing disaster we need to cure" camp, and so cost is no object.

I wonder if the reason there appears to be a contradiction is just that some policy-makers take prevention-type measures and create a framing of "ongoing disaster" around it, to make it look like a cure (and also to get it done).

-2

Replying toReference Frames for Expected Value

shokwave12y

Reference Frames for Expected Value

One would be ethical if their actions end up with positive outcomes, disregarding the intentions of those actions. For instance, a terrorist who accidentally foils an otherwise catastrophic terrorist plan would have done a very ‘morally good’ action.
This seems intuitively strange to many, it definitely is to me. Instead, ‘expected value’ seems to be a better way of both making decisions and judging the decisions made by others.

If the actual outcome of your action was positive, it was a good action. Buying the winning lottery ticket, as per your example, was a good action. Buying a losing lottery ticket was a bad action. Since we care about just the consequences of the... (read 364 more words →)

Replying toIrrationality Game III

shokwave12y

Irrationality Game III

There's no other source of morality and there's no other criterion to evaluate a behaviour's moral worth by. (Theorised sources such as "God" or "innate human goodness" or "empathy" are incorrect; criteria like "the golden rule" or "the Kantian imperative" or "utility maximisation" are only correct to the extent that they mirror the game theory evaluation.)

Of course we claim to have other sources and we act according to those sources; the claim is that those moral-according-to-X behaviours are immoral.

what is different about how we value morality based on its origin?

Evolution, either genetic or cultural, doesn't have infinite search capacity. We can evaluate which of our adaptations actually are promoting or enforcing symmetric cooperation in the IPD, and which are still climbing that hill, or are harmless extraneous adaptations generated by the search but not yet optimised away by selection pressures.

-1

Replying toIrrationality Game III

shokwave12y

Irrationality Game III

Sorry, I was trying to get at 'moral intuitions' by saying fairness, justice, etc. In this view, ethical theories are basically attempts to fit a line to the collection moral intuitions - to try and come up with a parsimonious theory that would have produced these behaviours - and then the outputs are right or interesting only as far as they approximate game-theoretic-good actions or maxims.

Replying toIrrationality Game III

shokwave12y

Irrationality Game III

Even given other technological civilisations existing, putting "matter and energy manipulation tops out a little above our current cutting edge" at 5% is way off.

Australian Rationalist in America

shokwave

13y

Hi LessWrong! I'm a LWer from Melbourne, Australia, and I'm taking a 3 month road trip (with a friend) through parts of the United States. I figure I'd enjoy hanging out with some fellow rationalists while I'm over here!

I attended the May Rationality minicamp in San Francisco (and made some friends who I'm hoping to meet up with again), but I've also heard good things about the LessWrong groups all over the United States. I'd like to meet some of the awesome people involved in these communities!

We've been planning this trip for a while now and have accommodation pretty much everywhere except for the second half of San Francisco.

Itinerary

17th-21st Nov - Los

... (read 275 more words →)

Melbourne Social Meetup CHANGE OF VENUE, 20/4/12, 7:00PM

shokwave

14y

Please be aware that tonight's social meet up, previously to be hosted at Ben's house, has changed venue to Trike Apps - 55 Walsh St, West Melbourne. (This is because, unfortunately, Ben is sick.)

Meetup : Melbourne social meetup

shokwave

14y

Discussion article for the meetup : Melbourne social meetup

WHEN: 20 April 2012 07:00:00PM (+1000)

WHERE: 55 Walsh St, West Melbourne, 3003

EDIT - The meet up has been moved to the Trike Apps office - 55 Walsh St, West Melbourne, 3003. Ben has requested this due to being ill. The time is unchanged.

Melbourne's next social meetup is on Friday, 20th April. We are meeting at the Trike Apps office, 55 Walsh St, West Melbourne. Alternatively, I can give you the address - you can call me at 0432 862 932, or email me at shokwave.sf@gmail.com, or inbox me by clicking on my name. Some form of take-away will be organised for dinner and there will be snacks available. BYO drinks. General catching up and chatting, followed by Resistance and Mafia. We all look forward to seeing you there!

Discussion article for the meetup : Melbourne social meetup

April Fools - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Joke Chapter

shokwave

14y

This was an april fools joke.

This is a new thread to discuss ~~Eliezer Yudkowsky’s~~ my chapter of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and anything related to it. This thread is intended for discussing the fake April Fools chapter, which is now published. I suggest refraining from reading comments here until you read chapter 82. After you've read chapter 82, I suggest all discussion of this chapter to be kept here, with links to comments in the previous thread.

Meetup : Melbourne social meetup

shokwave

14y

Discussion article for the meetup : Melbourne social meetup

WHEN: 16 March 2012 07:00:00PM (+1100)

WHERE: see mailing list; Carlton, VIC

Melbourne's next social meetup is on the 16th of March - as usual, at Ben's house. See the mailing list for the address - or you can call or text 0432 862 932 for the address. Alternatively, you can email shokwave.sf@gmail.com or even message User:shokwave on LessWrong.

Some form of takeaway - probably Indian - will be organised on the night. There will be snacks available. Some of them might even be healthy! BYO drinks.

The mafia games seem to have been the highlight of recent social events, so we're going to try starting those earlier in the night and running more of them.

Please comment if you're planning on attending. We wholeheartedly welcome newcomers!

Discussion article for the meetup : Melbourne social meetup

Meetup : Melbourne social meetup

shokwave

14y

Discussion article for the meetup : Melbourne social meetup

WHEN: 17 February 2012 06:30:00PM (+1100)

WHERE: see mailing list; Carlton, VIC

Melbourne's next social meetup is on Friday, 17th February. Continuing the tradition, we'll meet at Ben's house - see the mailing list for location details, or I can give you the address - you can call me at 0432 862 932, or email me at shokwave.sf@gmail.com, or inbox me by clicking on my name.

Some form of take-away will be organised for dinner and there will be snacks available. BYO drinks.

We'll be moving away from long board games; bring short ones or suggestions if you have any. There will be at least one game of Mafia!

It will help attendance numbers to comment, saying you'll be attending. We look forward to seeing you there!

LESSWRONG
LW

LESSWRONG
LW

April Fools - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Joke Chapter

Australian Rationalist in America

Melbourne Social Meetup CHANGE OF VENUE, 20/4/12, 7:00PM

Meetup : Melbourne social meetup

shokwave

shokwave

Australian Rationalist in America

Melbourne Social Meetup CHANGE OF VENUE, 20/4/12, 7:00PM

Meetup : Melbourne social meetup

April Fools - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Joke Chapter

Meetup : Melbourne social meetup

Meetup : Melbourne social meetup

shokwave

April Fools - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Joke Chapter

Australian Rationalist in America

Melbourne Social Meetup CHANGE OF VENUE, 20/4/12, 7:00PM

Meetup : Melbourne social meetup

shokwave

shokwave

Australian Rationalist in America

Melbourne Social Meetup CHANGE OF VENUE, 20/4/12, 7:00PM

Meetup : Melbourne social meetup

April Fools - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Joke Chapter

Meetup : Melbourne social meetup

Meetup : Melbourne social meetup

Itinerary

Discussion article for the meetup : Melbourne social meetup

Discussion article for the meetup : Melbourne social meetup

Discussion article for the meetup : Melbourne social meetup

Discussion article for the meetup : Melbourne social meetup

Discussion article for the meetup : Melbourne social meetup

Discussion article for the meetup : Melbourne social meetup