All of tdb's Comments + Replies

tdb40

Oh I get it now. He is masks all the way down. Remove them All and there would be nothing L3D2 of him.

4Crazy philosopher
I think that makes you what you pretend to be to protect yourself from occlumency. That's why Harry fell into a coma - he pretended to be a stone.
1Elias
Agreed. However... Rowena was not an Occlumense? Without knowing that this problem might arise later, I doubt that she would have not learned it. And creating the Diadem is likely to be harder than learning Occlumency... Unless there's people who just can't learn it, and she is one of them. Seems like a stretch. Or could she never use it? Also: if the Founders had all the requirements already, why didn't they finish it back then?
tdb40

Nice story. I want way more Luna, plus puzzling interactions with Tom Riddle and unicorn.

What finally happened to the nargle?

tdb10

Quirrel has incoherent doublethink?

4tdb
Oh I get it now. He is masks all the way down. Remove them All and there would be nothing L3D2 of him.
tdb30

I love it when someone asks me a question that gets me to teach myself something. This happens on Facebook once in a while, often by accident. If someone seriously tries to help me find the basis of or implications of or flaws in my thinking, I appreciate it. This may be a personal problem. I love answering certain questions, even when they don’t teach me anything. I am not always good at looking at things from a different perspective. Sometimes even a really ignorant question can spark off a new realization for me.

tdb10

Oops, I misinterpreted "create", didn't I?

My quibble still works. I couldn't know for sure while trying to conceive a child that my situation would necessarily continue to be sufficient to care for that child (shit can happen to anyone). Even if my circumstances continue as expected my children may develop physical or mental problems that could make them miserable. It's not a yes/no question, it's a "how much rusk" question. Where do we draw the line between too much risk and a reasonable risk?

tdb10

It is not even a norm.

If I marry my true love, someone else who loves my spouse may feel miserable as a result. No one is obligated to avoid creating this sort of misery in another person. We might quibble that such a person is immature and taking the wrong attitude, but the "norm" does not make exceptions where the victims are complicit in their own misery, it just prohibits anyone from causing it.

We might be able to construct a similar thought experiment for "dire situations". If I invent a new process that puts you out of business b... (read more)

1tdb
Oops, I misinterpreted "create", didn't I? My quibble still works. I couldn't know for sure while trying to conceive a child that my situation would necessarily continue to be sufficient to care for that child (shit can happen to anyone). Even if my circumstances continue as expected my children may develop physical or mental problems that could make them miserable. It's not a yes/no question, it's a "how much rusk" question. Where do we draw the line between too much risk and a reasonable risk?
tdb01

"cognitive archaeology", tee hee. I thought he was making it up, it turns out he's just misapplying it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_archaeology

tdb10

Yeah. How many groups in the distant past had core beliefs that are false? Pretty large percent. Even if the trend is going in the right direction, it seems unlikely we are out of the woods yet.

tdb20

Maybe we need a banned products store and a tort-proof banned products store, both.

Some libertarians might say that if you go into a "banned products shop", passing clear warning labels that say "THINGS IN THIS STORE MAY KILL YOU", and buy something that kills you, then it's your own fault and you deserve it. If that were a moral truth, there would be no downside to having shops that sell banned products. It wouldn't just be a net benefit, it would be a one-sided tradeoff with no drawbacks.

I don't quite follow. Even when people &q... (read more)

3gjm
I'm not certain I understand Eliezer's argument there, but I think he simply made a mistake: I agree with you that if you do something that deserves a bad outcome and the bad outcome happens, it can still be bad that that happened and that can be a downside to whatever may have made it easier for you to do the bad thing.
tdb10

I would also hold that political ideologies are mostly wrong.

Atheists don't hold that religions are mostly wrong. They hold that religious believers depend on untestable hypotheses and shield their beliefs from criticisms instead of engaging them.

What could we use as a political analog of atheism? Anarchists don't deny the existence of the state, just its benevolence.

For most issues it's makes a lot more sense to study the issue in detail than try to have an opinion based on precached ideology.

This sounds like an ideology wearing a fig leaf. When we... (read more)

1ChristianKl
If you have one ideology that you use to explain all political events you are a hedgehog. In contrast to that foxes use multiple distinct thought systems and are not committed to any single one. Philip E. Tetlock found in his Good Judgment Project that foxes are more likely to make accurate predictions about political events than hedgehogs. Philip E. Telock wrote before EY's sequences that everybody should be a Bayesian and that being a Bayesian is about is about updating. When it comes to the issue of whether the minimum wage reduces employment a Conservative might tell you "Of course minimum wage reduces employement" and a stereotypical Liberal "Of course the minimum wage reduces employement". I would tell you "I don't think the evidence is conclusive either way" because I don't want to let value judgements affect my beliefs about causation.
3Lumifer
Agnostics don't hold that religions are mostly wrong. Considering religions wrong is precisely what differentiates atheists from agnostics.
1TheAncientGeek
Wouldnt that be a special case of most beliefs being wrong? There isn't enough time to study everything in detail, but there is the option of not having an opinion about what you haven't' studied. if we can't help but bring our existing ideology to something we study, but that doesn't mean someone who says "study X" means "study X in terms of your ideology".
2CCC
I have come across atheists who hold - sometimes quite loudly - that all religions are completely wrong. I have no doubt that some think as you describe, but most certainly not all.
tdb30

This advice has more to do with serious written criticism, but I like spreading it around.

You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way."
You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).
You should mention anything you have learned from your target.
Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.

Me quoting Judith Curry quoting Daniel Dennett ... (read more)

0brazil84
When I debate people on the internet, I find that much of the time the other fellow does not have a clear position. That when I gently and politely ask questions aimed at clarifying the person's position, I get evasions, ad hominems, strawmanning, weaseling, and attempts to change the subject. Of course I usually limit my debates to topics where I've though pretty carefully about the subject. And I'm most interested in topics where popular views are questionable.