jls: It's not that hard to work out. Hint: WiredNews
I doubt this is one of those posts that takes 8 hours, and it is the holidays!
People not raised deeply in religion (like, say, the Orthodox Jewish community), and who didn't have to wait 'till they were in their 20s to 'come out' as atheist, probably don't appreciate the level of militancy folk like Eliezer display. I'm 2nd generation, and despite my militant materialism, I don't share my (Catholic) parents level of hostility to religion. YMMV.
Anyway, here's some festive viewing for y'all.
Passing thought. In another world, Lewis Little is the Lysenko of the Objectivist Party.
Just an aside, Rothbard and his coterie made fun of the Rand's cultishness (cf 'Mozart was a Red'), then promptly developed his own (big 'a') Austrian cult after splitting with Cato. Which goes to show recognizing the warning signs in others is no protection.
steven: I looked for that same quote. What's happened in comments was so predictable, and Yudkowsky must have known any abstract point about bias would be lost. Even got Truthers scuttling out from under their rock. Maybe he was trying to attract more eyeballs (reddit), fair enough if so, awfully close to trolling.
IIRC, the core of Marxism is historical materialism. But that doesn't mean anything to me. Is it more than the sum of Armstrong's independent parts?
Should really ask crooked timber or somewhere. Very good post.
Riley, a 15% death rate pa with total market saturation isn't an evolutionarily stable strategy.
Sounds like Eliezer has a touch of Obamamania. On the Nafta point (signaling he's a free trader really!) Obama supporter Jagdish Bhagwati recently slammed his early backdoor protectionism.
Only watched the first 20 mins - looking forward to rationality discussion.