bio_logical

I wouldn't expect to see anyone post here who gets downvoted for commenting to the extent that they are disallowed the ability to make further posts. It's very clear that this place is an echo-chamber populated with people who know very little outside of a little bit of math and programming. (Other than Eliezer himself.) However, like most intelligent people, I can benefit Eliezer's speeches and writings without participating in his poorly-designed echo-chamber.

Look at the repulsive sycophant "steven0461" below, and you'll see why I check this place once a year: "I meant Jake shouldn't write the post; sorry for the confusion. I was just being a cunt, and discouraging participation, "piling... (read more)

I downvoted those comments because they sucked. specifics? or just ad-hominem attacks against a filthy blue?

They were wrong in systematic ways indicative of a killed mind. more ad-hominems from a dazed fool

People who err on the side of shutting down discussion and debate are commonly known as authoritarian in nature. Just look at that snippet. The first sentence is awkwardly worded such that I can't tell whether he's committing the bandwagon fallacy, the fallacy of appeal to nature and arguing by definition, or the bandwagon fallacy and the fundamental attribution error.

Seems pretty clear to me that there's an honest point being made. Let's analyze your allegations of bias.

The bandwagon fallacy: You labeled the comment... (read 1363 more words →)

I'm interested to know what rational people should have done in 1930 Germany to prevent politics from killing minds there. Is there a general consensus here on that issue?

I mean, if ever there were an issue worthy of rational prioritization, I would think that the construction of deathcamps and the herding of people into them, should be prioritized. How might one rationally prioritize one's actions in that type of situation?

I honestly would like to know if there's a "non-mind-killing" approach possible in such a situation.

If the answer is not "political engagement" or "attempting to exert influence at the ballot box," and the answer is not "urge people you love to... (read more)

If your forum has a lot of smart people, and they read the recommended readings, then the more people who participate in the forum, the smarter the forum will be. If the forum doesn't have a lot of stupid, belligerent rules that make participation difficult, then it will attract people who like to post. If those people aren't discouraged from posting, but are discouraged from posting stupid things, your forum will trend toward intelligence (law of large numbers, emergence with many brains) and away from being an echo chamber (law of small numbers, emergence with few brains).

I wouldn't stay up late at night worrying about how to get people to up-vote or... (read more)

An idea that's false but "spectacularly well-written" should be downvoted to the extent of its destructiveness. Stupidity (the tendency toward unwitting self-destruction) is what we're trying to avoid here, right? We're trying to avoid losing. Willful ignorance of the truth is an especially damaging form of stupidity.

Two highly intelligent people will not likely come to a completely different and antithetical viewpoint if both are reasonably intelligent. Thus, the very well-written but false viewpoint is far more damaging than the clearly stupid false viewpoint. If this site helps people avoid damaging their property (their brain, their bodies, their material possessions), or minimizes systemic damage to those things, then it's more highly functional,... (read 843 more words →)

Here on Lesswrong, I'd favor such an argument. However, What happens when you look at a giant crowd of people with their bird masks on, and all of them are looking at you for an answer, and they're about to throw the heretic to the lions, because they lack moral consciences of their own? It's hard to argue against a "dishonest" strategic argument that still allows the heretic to live, when logic is out-gunned. Even so, I think that such a thing could be stated here, especially with an alias, in case you're called for jury duty in the future and want to "Survive Voir Dire."

...This is an old political question. There... (read 1421 more words →)

In short, engaging in the coalition-building necessary to do politics is claimed to cause belief in empirically false things. I.e. "Politics is the Mindkiller."

To me, this just shows that a ban on political argumentation is the very last thing that Lesswrong needs. The accusation of being "mind-killed" is levied by those whose minds are too emotionally dysfunctional for them to tell the difference between abolition and slave ownership (after all, one is blue and the other is green, and there couldn't very well be an objective reason for either side holding their position, could there?).

The ability to stifle debate with an ad hominem and a karmic downgrade is the mark of a... (read 440 more words →)