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All of Summerspeaker's Comments + Replies

How to Be Happy
Summerspeaker10

I view unhappiness, like pain, as useful information. If you find your hand over a burner, you turn off the flame rather than reconditioning yourself to enjoy the sensation of scorching flesh. Doing otherwise risks losing the limb entirely. Why should I react differently to oppressive and idiotic social circumstances? I desire external rather than internal change.

As a side, note, this piece reinforces the sort gender ideology and interpersonal hierarchies that contribute to making life unbearable: "Dudes, do this. Girls, do that." It assumes mono... (read more)

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1ameriver
Pain is not always useful information. Once I've burned my hand, turned off the burner, and treated the burns, my pain becomes much less helpful, and much more likely to distract me from whatever I might want to get done over the next few weeks. Particularly if I'm intelligent enough to remember the hand is injured and not re-injure it. Also, for example, phantom pain from amputated limbs.
How to Be Happy
Summerspeaker-10

I'm skeptical about the whole practice of studying happiness and trying to be happier based on this body of knowledge. Who knows what self reports actually mean? Social dynamics play a huge role in determine how happy people claim to be. Moreover, the entire enterprise of feeling good for its own sake strikes me as reactionary. Focusing on the personal ignores the social conditions response for so much suffering. I have the same complaints about zen. As Martin Luther King said, I'm proud to maladjusted about the horrors that surround me. I wouldn't want to be content under current nightmarish circumstances.

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3knb
Being unhappy doesn't fix anything.
4CuSithBell
Recursive functions need base cases.
Your Strength as a Rationalist
Summerspeaker50

Considering that medical errors apparently kill more people than car accidents each year in the United States, I suspect the establishment is not in fact infallible.

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3tgb
Citation needed? I know I'm coming to this rather late, but a quick check of the 2010 CDC report on deaths in the US gives "Complications of medical and surgical care" as causing 2,490 deaths whereas transport accidents causing 37,961 deaths (35,332 of which were classified a 'motor vehicle deaths'). The only other thing I can see that might be medical errors put under a different heading is "Accidental poisoning and exposure to noxious substances" at 33,041 which combines to still fewer deaths than transport accidents even without removing those poisonings which are not medical errors. (This poisoning category appears to have a lot of recreational drug overdoses judging by the way it sharply increases in the 15-24 age group then drops off after 54 whereas time-spent-in-hospital is presumably increasing with age.) On the other hand, a 2012 New York Times Op-Ed claims 98,000 deaths from medical errors a year. This number is so much larger than what the CDC reports that I must be misreading something. That would be about 1 in 20 people who die in the US die due to medical error. Original source from 1999). Actually checking that source, 98,000 deaths/year is the upper bound number given (lower bound of 44,000 deaths/year). The report also recommends a 50% reduction in these deaths within 5 years (so by 2004) - and Wikipedia mentions a 2006 study claiming that they successfully preventing 120,000 deaths in an 18 month time period but I can't find this study. A 2001 followup here appears to focus on suggestions for improvements rather than on giving new data to our question. 3 minutes on Google Scholar didn't turn up any recent estimates. This entire sub-field appears to rely very heavily upon that one source - at least in the US. Also of interest is "Actual Causes of Death in the US" which classifies deaths by 'mistake made' (so to speak) - the top killer being tobacco use, then poor diet/low exercise, alcohol, microbial agents, toxic agents, car accidents, firearms,
Should humanity give birth to a galactic civilization?
Summerspeaker10

What do y'all think about John Smart's thesis that an inward turn is more likely that the traditional script galactic colonization?

http://www.accelerating.org/articles/answeringfermiparadox.html

Rather wild read, but perhaps worth a thought. Would that alternative trajectory affect your opinion of the prospect, XiXiDu?

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Should humanity give birth to a galactic civilization?
Summerspeaker00

On balance I'm not too happy with the history of existence. As Douglas Adams wrote, "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move." I'd rather not be here myself, so I find the creation of other sentients a morally questionable act. On the other hand, artificial intelligence offers a theoretical way out of this mess. Worries about ennui strike me as deeply misguided. Oppression, frailty, and stupidity makes hanging out in this world unpleasant, not any lack of worth... (read more)

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Problems in evolutionary psychology
Summerspeaker30

Thank you for posting this, Kaj. It's exactly what the community needs at this time. Far too many transhumanists accept the claims coming out of evolutionary psychology uncritically. Bravo!

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