Aryn,
I'm sorry I missed you last time. I went to one once and someone had a sign that said LessWrong on it and I was expecting them to show up again.
Epistimeme,
I have an idea. Next time there is one scheduled on here, I'll "cohost". By that, I mean that I'll be at a LessWrong meeting at the same time and place. That way, we can be sure that there will be a meeting. I think they usually happen on Wednesday nights. Keep an eye on the local method section and I'll comment on it to confirm that I will be there so at least we can have some sort of m...
In 10 years, I'll be 32 as well. My main reason for trying to put off procrastinating is because I know I'd be kicking myself (metaphorically) if I died when I was 31 due to some stupid accident.
I'm in the process now of trying to figure out how to spend my first few decades in a way that will be most conducive to making the future an even better place to live.
For me, I really can't see the downside to signing up. Life insurance is something most people sign up for anyway and the additional ~120 bucks for cryonics is pocket change. I mean, common people; ...
I don't think it takes an degree in nano-tech or cutting edge medicine to be more confident in the power of future technology than in the power of praying for souls. Even if it is granted that there aren't great reasons for supposing cryonic preservation is viable, it is a huge and unwarranted leap to say that is as intellectually vacuous as the ideas of prayers affecting souls.
Loving this fic so far! It's really stretched my space of imagined possible alien minds. I attended a conference this summer called TAM 9 and several of the talks were on possible alien life, but none of them had this kind of imagination.
The best solution I could think of (and yes, I did sit and think about it for a few minutes) would be to modify the baby eaters so that the children want to be eaten and/or don't suffer their end at the hands of their parents. Haven't thought about the current conundrum yet.
I think the point of this post is that people are already doing what they want and, lo and behold, people are behaving morally (for the most part) with or without the permission of moral philosophers. To me, and I'm pretty sure all of you, would still act morally. I would still abstain from murdering people and I'd still tip delivery drivers. We already know (at least the gist) of what morality is.
I think the other point of this post is that even if the relativists were right, we'd still act the same.
(Although, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that ...
Ahh... So this is why Harry and Draco meet at night wearing hooded masks instead of just studying in the library behind a quietus charm. :)
This was a fun post. While I enjoy the public access and general lack of rock climbing ablilities associated with learning science, it is a fun thing to contemplate. Maybe there is a way to implement this sort of thing in elementary school classrooms. Maybe kids would think science is more fun if you offered to teach them the amazing secrets if and only if they were able to give you a non-password answer for what hypotheses and theories are.
Great post!
I think the greatest test of self honesty (maybe it ties with honestly imagining the world you wish weren't real) would be admitting to yourself that the world looks an awful lot like the hypotheticl world you just vividly imagined. I think if anyone who believes in god or homeopathy or what-have-you honestly imagined what the world would look like if their belief was wrong, and they had enough courage, they'd admit to themselves that the world looks a lot like that already.
And here is the response to that Sam Harris wrote to some critiques of his postion on how science can answer moral questions: http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/a/
This is rather unnerving. I shamefully admit that the idea that I might accidentally do harm is something I hadn't seriously considered. People come to me for advice all the time and I always qualify it by saying things like "Here is what I would do, but every situation is different" and "consider that there is probably a lot more to be said on this topic" but it never occurred to me that I could accidentally do serious harm to someone by offering a little advice.
Between this and the inferential difference, is there much hope at all for trying to educate and help people?
Another great post. Much of the philosophical discussion I have with people consists of them 'pretending to be wise'. Whenever I am giving a fragmentary repitition of someone else's conclusion (usually when talking about something complex in science that I know only a little about) I'm at least up front with them. I'll say something thing like "I don't understand this nearly as well as [insert some experts or a specific field], but here is the little bit I do know.
Oh my various gods! That was possibly one of the best articles here. Granted, it was a bit far afield from usual, but it brought the concepts that this site discusses home in a relatable story. +5, if I could. Though I should be clear, every article I have read on here has taught me something. This one didn't really have a specific lesson to teach, but it was thought provoking and made me laugh a lot more than many of the other articles.
Though I doubt it, if there is anyone here who hasn't heard of the fanfic Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (you will probably recognize the name of the author) I cannot reccommend it more highly. It is positively brimming with story-told knowledge and wisdom like this.
I've been working my way through the sequences in order for the last few weeks and trying to read all of the links. I love this blog and tell people about whenever I can.
Reading these entries has helped me realize some of the ways in which I tend to think incorrectly, and I hope I am taking it slow enough to reflect enough and make myself think better. :)
I suppose I should comment about at least one thing relevant to this article in particular. Posted at 4:22 am?! When do you sleep, Eliezer?
I forget who this commonly used quote is taken from, but I find it useful when discussing potential future technologies with people. "If a celebrated scientist says something is possible he [unfortunately the quote does use only 'he'] is almost certainly right. If he says something is impossible, he is almost certainly wrong."
I, as a lowly college student, would hesitate to call almost anything impossible. Speaking with the benefit of reading lots of dead smart people saying how impossible things that are trivial to us now are, I feel comfortable...
Is it just me, or did Ferris have the best reaction? It seems to me that if everyone reacted this way to learning something so exciting, the world would be a much better place. it doesn't say what Ferris believed earlier, but perhaps the point is that it doesn't matter. What matters is the magic of the reality, not how it relates to prior conceptions.
Alas, this one is a bust. Dazbog closes at 6:30! I'll schedule another soon, promise