LESSWRONG
LW

All of A11AF82's Comments + Replies

What legal ways do people make a profit that produce the largest net loss in utility?
A11AF82-20

Jack said that there two sides to the ledger with respect to tobacco

And I replied there were similarly two sides to the ledger with respect to many other drugs.

He didn't say which side would necessarily prevail in this case.

Neither did I.

Furthermore, there is no reason why the side that's stronger for one drug is necessarily stronger for another.

Are you saying that out of all existing non-legal drugs, not even one would have a similar profile to tobacco?

Reply
What legal ways do people make a profit that produce the largest net loss in utility?
A11AF8280

This would likely be true of many other (hard) drugs if there had been a history of legally selling them instead of nipping their markets in the bud. In fact, this would probably be true of wireheading too if it was practical, and ultimately, orgasmium. Willing to bite that bullet?

Reply
1Jack
Yes, other drugs are not unmitigated evils either. I've heard heroin is a 1000 times better than sex. The fact that it will eventually kill you and likely ruin your family life doesn't change that. I think alcohol and caffeine probably come out on the positive side of the ledger while most don't. But it is hard to say.
3Eugine_Nier
Huh? Jack said that there two sides to the ledger with respect to tobacco. He didn't say which side would necessarily prevail in this case. Furthermore, there is no reason why the side that's stronger for one drug is necessarily stronger for another.
On manipulating others
A11AF8230

Go one step farther. Do that compulsion to agree and be mellow with people you don't agree with mean you're a dishonest jerk who's trying to manipulate them, or does it mean you're not feeling comfortable with disagreeing with them (for instance because you feel like they'd reject you if you did, which might be painful, or because you do not want to hurt their feelings, or because you feel like you don't have the social status to do that). Don't necessarily assume you're evil.

For instance I know I hate lying mostly because I am feeling insecure enough to ... (read more)

Reply
How to Find a Personal Assistant to Produce More? Transhumanism
A11AF8230

Quite a few associations rooted in transhumanism have attempted (whether they did so successfully is questionable) to distance themselves from the crazy-sounding (to a mainstream audience) plain description of their original goals and beliefs, in an effort to attract more and better quality funding and following (such as academia).

Compare :

Longecity, formerly The Immortality Institute

Humanity+, formerly The World Transhumanist Association

The Singularity Institute remains named so, but seems willing to follow suit.

I think I'm observing an emerging pattern,... (read more)

Reply
2CarlShulman
Huh. Both of these names seem pretty terrible to me. Longecity just sounds peculiar and unmemorable, while "Immortality Institute" seems ridiculously overblown as "a plain description of their original goals and beliefs." And there is a "Life Extension Foundation." I think that they were trying to avoid sounding "anti-human," which "Transhumanist" has some connotations of. Those connotations are significantly true if we're talking about allowing serious genetic enhancement, or the creation of brain emulations, although I'm pretty sure that transhumanist overwhelmingly want the welfare and survival of existing humans (such as themselves!) protected. Also, historically, I think that this was a ploy at increasing growth and becoming more fashionable, rather than a reaction to increasing unfashionability. The SI is small relative to other forces shaping the popular meaning of the term Singularity, e.g. Kurzweil's books, or people using the term "Singularity" to talk about advances in video game technology (which has actually happened at a major conference). So it's hard to avoid confusion with other meanings of the word, or with different views and organizations (e.g. people confuse SI for Singularity University fairly often). I would make similar comments about denotationally crazy rhetoric on behalf of other political ideologies like liberalism, conservatism, nationalism, and so on. I was saying first that the claims were factually false, and second that they were being made in an ideologically charged way that it's helpful to avoid. I certainly don't think that transhumanism implies denotational craziness much more than other ideologies. If anything, I'd say the opposite, because of the high average levels of education, intelligence, secularism, and so forth among transhumanists and the concordance of their ethical views with elites along those dimensions who do not self-identify as transhumanist.
How to Find a Personal Assistant to Produce More? Transhumanism
A11AF8210

Is it me or has transhumanism become a taboo word associated to low status crackpots around here?

Reply
3CarlShulman
Transhumanism is a cause of some folk visiting here despite being less interested in epistemic rationality as such, so I would expect an enrichment of self-identified transhumanists anong the authors of badly received posts. It's also a political tribe for a number of people, so there is room for mind-killing. However, I'd be curious to see your links to examples.
Competence in experts: summary
A11AF8290

and I have seen Fermi estimates for quantities like e.g. the mass of the Earth apparently extract narrow and correct estimations out of the sums of multiple widely erroneous steps.

out of how many wrong/wide estimates using the same method?

Reply