All of ewang's Comments + Replies

ewang00

Never mind, I see your point, although I still disagree with your conclusion on the grounds of narrative plausibility and good writing.

ewang00

Here's another, roughly isomorphic statement:

What is Gravity besides some form of superintelligence, or at least the remnants of superintelligence? The strongest evidence is that engineers and even physicists don't really have to understand how gravity actually works in order to use it. There is information entering the system from somewhere, and it's enough information to accurately detect when an object is unsupported or structurally unstable. And the chaotic side-effects tend to be improbably harmful. It's like an almost-Friendly, or perhaps a broken previously-Friendly, AI. Possibly the result of some ancient Singularity that is no longer explicitly remembered.

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0ewang
Never mind, I see your point, although I still disagree with your conclusion on the grounds of narrative plausibility and good writing.
ewang250

I find it rather irritating when someone does this every time I use the words "soul" or "God" in a rhetorical context.

I believe in neither, but both words have their uses.

ewang30

Actually, I think the issue is a misunderstanding of what apostasy is in the first place.

4Larks
* An apostasy is when you leave the group you were once a member of (normally a religion). Considered very sinful by some - better never to have been a believer than to have seen and turned from the light.
ewang20

Science most definitely does not mean: "Let's try something random today and see what happens".

That does seem to be how mathematics works, though.

ewang100

It is a hypothetical situation of unreasonably high security that tries to probe for an upper bound on the level of containment required to secure an AI.

-2Desrtopa
I would think that the sorts of hypotheticals that would be most useful to entertain would be ones that explore the safety of the most secure systems anyone would have an actual incentive to implement. Could you contain a Strong AI running on a computer with no output systems, sealed in a lead box at the bottom of the ocean? Presumably yes, but in that case, you might as well skip the step of actually making the AI.
ewang10

If an isolated AI can easily escape in any circumstance, it really doesn't make sense to train gatekeepers.

1Desrtopa
Yes, but why run it on a computer at all? It doesn't seem likely to do you any good that way.
ewang-40

Replace "tangentially" with "about as much as basically any other thing".

ewang-30

Actually, it is; while the post is clogged with outdated ideas and plays fast and loose with the meaning of existence, I wouldn't want to see a slew of actually sound arguments about basic set theory clogging up Discussion, either.

3prase
Do you feel we have too many posts in the Discussion? Excluding meetups, there appear to be two to three posts daily, including topics unrelated to rationality. Is it too much? Actually sound arguments showing that basic set theory is wrong would be amazing. Not that they are likely to materialise here, but nevertheless.
9IlyaShpitser
I don't recall a single post of mine that is related to rationality more than tangentially. Should I leave?

Being "tangentially related to rationality" is not the true rejection.

ewang20

"Signaling" is a term that we've given a more precise definition than the other two.

ewang90

If you're going to dodge defining existence, please at least clarify your point by telling us which of these things "exist":

a) irrational numbers

b) sets

c) postmodernism

d) the number of Langford pairings of length 100

e) negative numbers

f) quaternions

ewang10

(And FYI, that’s the proper spelling: "homosexual" is common but wrong, because omo- is the proper Greek prefix.)

6fubarobfusco
Cute. Alas, "homosexual" — like "polyamory", "microgravity", "electroconduction", and "mammogram" — is a Greek-Latin compound. ("Homophile" was current once, but no longer; "polyphilia" is sometimes reported, "multiamory" not so much; "microbaricity" would imply vacuum rather than freefall; "anbaroconduction" unreported outside certain fantasy universes; and a "mammoscript" sounds like the upstairs equivalent of a Vagina Monologue.)
-2prase
ομο-
ewang60

One reason gender politics is especially "mind-killing" is that the two least interesting/statistically significant/improbable positions (males are more THIS than females, females more THAT than males) also happen to be the two positions seen as the "strongest".

ewang120

Sorry, but "this'll probably get down voted, but" just doesn't work here.

-5pleeppleep
ewang10

It's refreshing to see the non-anastrophic arrangement in the title.

What LessWrong would call the "system" of rationality is the rigorous mathematical application of Bayes' Theorem. The "one thousand tips" you speak of are what we get when we apply this system to itself to quickly guess its behavior under certain conditions, as carrying around a calculator and constantly applying the system in everyday life is rather impractical.

6[anonymous]
Of course, Bayes' theorem has the obvious problem that carrying out all of the necessary calculations is practically impossible. I mentioned a bunch of properties that a good system (to take a hint from roryokane, an algorithm) ought to have; surely we can come up with something that has those properties, without being impossible for a human to execute.
Vaniver280

The voting buttons were removed from the user page for exactly this reason.

6TorqueDrifter
They don't appear to be ON the user page. Apparently it doesn't (entirely)!
ewang20

I have done so.

I can better serve you if I continue doing so.

ewang30

I've heard another anecdote from someone with ADHD that ritalin helps you focus at the cost of YOUR SOUL.

8[anonymous]
I've heard such things. I noticed a possible drop in creativity. As jsalvatier said, nice to have the option. Sometimes I need to get shit done, not have a "soul". If it was a permanant choice that would be different.
0DaFranker
Eh, if it gives the effects described in the grandparent on a consistent basis and I happen to have ADHD, I would gladly trade off the very low expected cost of my soul (since I have a very low P on it existing in the first place) for the large increase in mental superpowers.

Nice to have the option, though.

1Kindly
Dun dun dun.
ewang00

Just wait until "fgebatyl cerqvpgvir" starts working its way into the back of the subject's brain.

ewang-10

I'm not against karma, but it's the reason why the largest subreddits have turned into trash.

ewang00

I feel that the Big Bang Theory is just another name for "Sheldon Says the Darnedest Things".

ewang40

1000, because nobody here seems to have an interest in actually participating.

ewang90

RationalWiki is a wiki because it was made with the sole intent to make fun of Conservapedia.

ewang60

When I come across a pseudoscience I haven't seen before, I usually go to Google first to check its position with regard to reality.

Then I go to its RationalWiki article for entertainment. This is essential if I don't want to spend the rest of the day fuming at how many people "actually believe in that stuff".

ewang30

As a Dwarf Fortress player, I'd prefer using "&" to warn about AI hazards rather than "@".

1wedrifid
Definitely. Whether in Dwarf Fortress or a rogue-like "@" means "player character or another demi-human". Humanoid Terminators aren't the risk here!
ewang00

I'd say that the article is arguing, if it is at all about transhumanism, that James Bond is "transhumanizing", rather than transhumanist in itself.

ewang-10

Anyone looking for more information should search for the term "Blue Brain Project", as the project had (under that name) actually achieved something.

ewang20

What do we do when there is a very tiny (2^-x) chance that THIS random thing has incredibly huge (O(3^^^^3)) importance?

-5staticIP
ewang80

Shooting skeet eight hours a month was excellent training for them. It trained them to shoot skeet.

Joseph Heller, Catch-22

ewang30

Smoking isn't very rational. That's why some people here who've never smoked chew the gum instead.

0MaoShan
Do you mean going from not smoking at all, to chewing nicotine gum? I find that tempting, along with electronic cigarettes, because of the upsides to nicotine. It still seems like a bad idea in the long run due to withdrawal effects in the event that nicotine was unavailable.
ewang20

It's more of a quantum computing development. Perhaps a more appropriate title would be "Quantum measurements leave Schrodinger's Cat in an ambiguous state while telling us just how ambiguous the state is".

ewang60

From what I've heard about the demographics here, you might want to ask whether the gum contains nicotine.

0gwern
I was going to click 'never', but then I thought for a moment - 'don't I have to get up to prepare my nicotine gum experiment?' - and had to change my answer.
0MaoShan
That I find interesting. Smoking is not very rational; it rides along with many social yearnings which I thought were somewhat rare here. (I also used to smoke cigarettes, but quit cold turkey, after about 75 failed attempts.)
ewang00

If it's not a paradox, that the logic behind it works should never be interesting. How it works is another story.

3chaosmosis
I disagree. I don't approach it from the perspective of "it's not a paradox, therefore the logic behind it is interesting". I approach it from the position of "oh, this does work after all, neat, therefore this is not a paradox". I sorta feel like I'm being chided by your comment, too, and I don't like that.
ewang00

I've heard that test repeatedly labeled as the "only personality test on the internet that works", but I can't really find many other Myers-Briggs tests.

ewang60

We generally don't take well to Reddit-style politics. It usually degrades quickly into a "circlejerk", which is what our goal here is to avoid.

ewang40

The most obvious examples I can think of are the countless amateur mathematicians that tried to square the circle.

ewang190

If I recall correctly, the concept of "memes" was invented to illustrate the universality of Darwinian evolution in non-genetic systems, rather than as an attempt to explain results or make predictions.

1timtyler
Many others quickly rectified that. The man who coined the term later joined in - e.g. see the chapter about memes in The God Delusion.
ewang00

Point already raised and discussed, see below.

ewang00

Mean 1.69172935902e+16

What use is the mean if anyone can just do something like this?

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5A1987dM
Yeah, scrap the mean, and show the 1st and 3rd quartile in addition to the median.
0ewang
Point already raised and discussed, see below.
ewang80

a million dollars is the mind-killer

So, scope insensitivity?

8ShannonVyff
Kim is sending a check of funds she has raised to the Venturist fund, mainly to ensure that all the funds are together in one place and the suspension can be more smooth. As you all know she is hoping to be preserved at either Alcor or CI depending on how much is raised. I'd feel a lot better if we were at least at CI funding levels, but we have a ways to go.
ewang00

Click the highlighted up/down hand to remove the vote.

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ewang00

The amount of time it would take to get a reasonable dataset would likely exceed the projected lifespan of the universe, I imagine.

ewang00

The basilisk is, in short, a piece of information that describes the terrible things that would happen to you if you knew that piece of information.

ewang40

Similarly, internet usage is indirectly correlated with life expectancy, although the correlation isn't anywhere near strong enough to make reasonable judgments of one from the other.

ewang10

This isn't Reddit; posts generally should be more than just a link and a quote.

0Utopiah
I agree and to be sincere when I posted it I wondered if the format was appropriate but I concluded that the content was and that is what matter. PS: thanks, I just discovered http://www.reddit.com/r/lesswrong btw :)
8Oscar_Cunningham
I agree that this isn't Reddit, but I'm okay with just a link if it's to a useful rationality related source.
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