Like, I used to tack the word "aspiring" in front as my preferred means of indicating that we don't think we've already solved rationality. Nowadays, I just reach for the scare quotes.
-ME: While I agree that words can be used in many ways depending on context, I claim that sometimes it's useful to use this top-20 noun to refer to the same thing it's always referred to for the past 200,000 years since language evolved, even if we have reasonably chosen to broaden the extension of that noun to also include other, relevantly similar things in most day-to-day contexts! Given that people are capable of inferring what is meant from the relevant context, this won't confuse anyone, and we can continue peacefully using language to describe reality. Then, we can use those descriptions of reality to formulate plans! Plans that will steer the universe into regions of configuration space that rank higher in our individual and collective preference orderings!
+ME: While I agree that words can be used in many ways depending on context, I claim that sometimes it's useful to use this top-20 noun to refer strictly to the same thing it's always referred to for the past 200,000 years since language evolved, even if we have reasonably chosen to broaden the extension of that noun to also include other, relevantly similar things in most day-to-day contexts! Given that people are capable of inferring what is meant from the relevant context, this won't confuse anyone, and we can continue peacefully using language to describe reality. Then, we can use those descriptions of reality to formulate plans! Plans that will steer the universe into regions of configuration space that rank higher in our individual and collective preference orderings!
-"RATIONALISTS": But, but, using that top-20 noun to refer to the same thing it's always referred to for the past 200,000 years could cause psychological harm to people whose dysphoria is triggered by that word usage! You should take that into account before you use that word in that way! After all, categories were made for the man, not man for the categories!
+"RATIONALISTS": But, but, using that top-20 noun to refer strictly to the same thing it's always referred to for the past 200,000 years could cause psychological harm to people whose dysphoria is triggered by that word usage! You should take that into account before you use that word in that way! After all, categories were made for the man, not man for the categories!
-ME: As an aspiring epistemic rationalist (epistemic rationality is the only form of rationality; "instrumental rationality" is a phrase someone made up in order to make themselves feel better about lying), I have a GODDAMNED MORAL RESPONSIBILITY to ignore psychological harm to people whose dysphoria is triggered by using a GODDAMNED top-20 noun to refer to the same GODDAMNED thing it's always referred to for the past 200,000 years!
+ME: As an aspiring epistemic rationalist (epistemic rationality is the only kind of rationality; "instrumental rationality" is a phrase someone made up in order to make themselves feel better about lying), I have a GODDAMNED MORAL RESPONSIBILITY to ignore psychological harm to people who are SO GODDAMNED FRAGILE that they can't handle someone making reference to the concept of BIOLOGICAL SEX. (I refuse to use the phrase "assigned at birth", you pretentious bastards.) If we need to gerrymander our descriptions of fucking REALITY in order to avoid HURTING SOMEONE'S FEELINGS, there is NO GODDAMNED POINT in pretending to have a rationalist community anymore!
- there is NO GODDAMNED POINT in even pretending to have a rationalist community anymore!
-
-JESUS FUCKING CHRIST GUYS
-
-Look! I don't want to hurt anyone! I'm a transhumanist! I probably have the same underlying psychological variation! I want to be pretty and have a high voice and have my own breasts and a vagina too! I have fantasized about this probably almost literally every single day since puberty! I'm wearing an 0.05 mg/day estradiol patch right now! (This is a starter dose and doesn't seem to be doing much. I should probably take the doctor up on her willingness to prescribe Spiro, too.)
-
-I AGREE that people should be able to modify their bodies and social presentation! I AGREE that we should enforce the polite social norm of referring to people the way they want to be referred to in accordance with their social presentation!
-
-But sometimes, it's also USEFUL to be able to talk about ACTUAL REALITY, in addition to social reality! And one concept that's occasionally USEFUL for MAKING (statistical, probabilistic) PREDICTIONS about those fucking apes running around in actual reality is BIOLOGICAL SEX. No! I am not going to say "assigned at birth", you pretentious bastards! BIOLOGICAL SEX!
-
-I know! I didn't want to believe it, either! I really, really didn't!
-
-I AGREE that intersex conditions exist! I AGREE that biology is complicated and all sorts of unusual things can happen at nonzero probabilities, such that ordinary everyday language that successfully classifies 99% of cases might return ambiguous results on that exceptional 1%.
-
-But I don't have an intersex condition! YOU don't have an intersex condition! Virtually NO ONE FUCKING HERE has an intersex condition! (That is, not _before_ starting HRT! Growth mindset!)
-
-I want people to be free to self-improve and do new and wonderful things that have never been done before, and I want social norms that are supportive of this, and I want everyone to get along and be friends.
-
-Together.
+I am a transhumanist. I want people to have the freedom to modify their bodies and social presentation and do all sorts of beautiful new things that have never been done before, and I want to participate in enforcing social norms that protect that freedom. But in order to design social norms that best protect everyone's interests,
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / commitdiff