yttrium

TL;DR by lavalamp: Treating "computers running minds" as discrete objects might cause a paradox in probability calculations that involve self-location. "The probability of being a certain mind" is probably an extensive physical quantity, i.e. rises proportionally to the size of the physical system doing the associated computations. There are two...

Many people see themselves in various groups (member of the population of their home country, or their social network), and feel justified in caring more about the well-being of people in this group than about that of others. They will argue with reciprocity: "Those people pay taxes in our country,...

The idea is to compare not the results of actions, but the results of decision algorithms. The question that the agent should ask itself is thus: "Suppose everyone1 who runs the same thinking procedure like me uses decision algorithm X. What utility would I get at the 50th percentile (not:...

As everyone here knows, it would be a stupid idea to switch from airplanes to cars out of safety/terrorism concerns: Cars are a much more risky means of transportation than airplanes. But what other major risks are there that many people systematically undervalue or are not even consciously aware of?...

Have you ever convinced a religious person to become atheistic? How did you do this? How long did it take? Were the people in some sort of life crisis, or were they just living along? This is probably a quite difficult task of persuasion. So stories how people were successful...