memoir: yank out a new pt. 4!!

[Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git] / content / drafts / agreeing-with-stalin-in-ways-that-exhibit-generally-rationalist-principles.md

diff --git a/content/drafts/agreeing-with-stalin-in-ways-that-exhibit-generally-rationalist-principles.md b/content/drafts/agreeing-with-stalin-in-ways-that-exhibit-generally-rationalist-principles.md
index 7abb20d..adeb259 100644 (file)
--- a/content/drafts/agreeing-with-stalin-in-ways-that-exhibit-generally-rationalist-principles.md
+++ b/content/drafts/agreeing-with-stalin-in-ways-that-exhibit-generally-rationalist-principles.md
@@ -9,9 +9,7 @@ Status: draft
 >
 > —_Atlas Shrugged_ by Ayn Rand
 
 >
 > —_Atlas Shrugged_ by Ayn Rand
 

-[TODO: recap of previous two posts]
-
-[TODO: psychiatric disaster, breakup with Vassar group, this was really bad for me]
+[TODO: recap of previous three posts]

 
 On 13 February 2021, ["Silicon Valley's Safe Space"](https://archive.ph/zW6oX), the _New York Times_ piece on _Slate Star Codex_ came out. It was ... pretty lame? (_Just_ lame, not a masterfully vicious hit piece.) Cade Metz did a mediocre job of explaining what our robot cult is about, while [pushing hard on the subtext](https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=5310) to make us look racist and sexist, occasionally resorting to odd constructions that were surprising to read from someone who had been a professional writer for decades. ("It was nominally a blog", Metz wrote of _Slate Star Codex_. ["Nominally"](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nominally)?) The article's claim that Alexander "wrote in a wordy, often roundabout way that left many wondering what he really believed" seemed to me more like a critique of the "many"'s reading comprehension, rather than Alexander's writing.
 
 
 On 13 February 2021, ["Silicon Valley's Safe Space"](https://archive.ph/zW6oX), the _New York Times_ piece on _Slate Star Codex_ came out. It was ... pretty lame? (_Just_ lame, not a masterfully vicious hit piece.) Cade Metz did a mediocre job of explaining what our robot cult is about, while [pushing hard on the subtext](https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=5310) to make us look racist and sexist, occasionally resorting to odd constructions that were surprising to read from someone who had been a professional writer for decades. ("It was nominally a blog", Metz wrote of _Slate Star Codex_. ["Nominally"](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nominally)?) The article's claim that Alexander "wrote in a wordy, often roundabout way that left many wondering what he really believed" seemed to me more like a critique of the "many"'s reading comprehension, rather than Alexander's writing.
 


@@ -465,30 +463,31 @@ If you don't want to say those things because hurting people is wrong, then you
 
 Scott Alexander chose Feelings, but I can't really hold that against him, because Scott is [very explicit about only acting in the capacity of some guy with a blog](https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/07/04/some-clarifications-on-rationalist-blogging/). You can tell from his writings that he never wanted to be a religious leader; it just happened to him on accident because he writes faster than everyone else. I like Scott. Scott is great. I feel sad that such a large fraction of my interactions with him over the years have taken such an adversarial tone.
 
 
 Scott Alexander chose Feelings, but I can't really hold that against him, because Scott is [very explicit about only acting in the capacity of some guy with a blog](https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/07/04/some-clarifications-on-rationalist-blogging/). You can tell from his writings that he never wanted to be a religious leader; it just happened to him on accident because he writes faster than everyone else. I like Scott. Scott is great. I feel sad that such a large fraction of my interactions with him over the years have taken such an adversarial tone.
 

-Eliezer Yudkowsky ... did not _unambiguously_ choose Feelings. He's been very careful with his words to strategically mood-affiliate with the side of Feelings, without consciously saying anything that he knows to be unambiguously false. The vast majority of the time, when some guy with a blog adopts this kind of political strategy, it's hard to muster up the enthusiasm to hold it against him; it's not worth anyone's effort to write an 80,000-word series of callout posts exposing the dishonesty.
+Eliezer Yudkowsky ... did not _unambiguously_ choose Feelings. He's been very careful with his words to strategically mood-affiliate with the side of Feelings, without consciously saying anything that he knows to be unambiguously false.

 
 

-But Eliezer Yudkowsky does not "present as" just some guy with a blog. Eliezer Yudkowsky is _absolutely_ trying to be a religious leader, one who ["aspires to make sure [his] departures from perfection aren't noticeable to others"](https://twitter.com/ESYudkowsky/status/1384671335146692608).
+The vast majority of the time, when some guy with a blog adopts this kind of political strategy, it's hard to muster up the enthusiasm to hold it against him; it's not worth anyone's effort to write an 80,000-word series of callout posts exposing the dishonesty.

 
 

+But Eliezer Yudkowsky does not "present as" just some guy with a blog. Eliezer Yudkowsky is _absolutely_ trying to be a religious leader. He markets himself as a master of the hidden Bayesian structure of cognition, who ["aspires to make sure [his] departures from perfection aren't noticeable to others"](https://twitter.com/ESYudkowsky/status/1384671335146692608).

 
 

+In making such boasts, Yudkowsky is opting in to being held to higher standards. If some guy with a blog like Scott Alexander doesn't have the guts to stand up for Truth, that's disappointing, but I can't claim to be the victim of false advertising. 

 
 
 
 

+If Eliezer Yudkowsky can't _unambigously_ choose Truth over Feelings, _then Eliezer Yudkowsky is a fraud_. 

 
 

-Back in 'aught-nine, 

 
 
 
 

-* papal infallability / Eliezer Yudkowsky facts
-https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Ndtb22KYBxpBsagpj/eliezer-yudkowsky-facts?commentId=Aq9eWJmK6Liivn8ND
-Never go in against Eliezer Yudkowsky when anything is on the line.

 
 

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris_facts
+Back in 'aught-nine when _Less Wrong_ was new, we had a thread of hyperbolic ["Eliezer Yudkowsky Facts"](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Ndtb22KYBxpBsagpj/eliezer-yudkowsky-facts) (in the vein of [Chuck Norris facts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris_facts)).

 
 
 
 

-https://twitter.com/ESYudkowsky/status/1096769579362115584
-> When an epistemic hero seems to believe something crazy, you are often better off questioning "seems to believe" before questioning "crazy", and both should be questioned before shaking your head sadly about the mortal frailty of your heroes.

 
 

- * If Eliezer Yudkowsky can't _unambigously_ choose Truth over Feelings, _then Eliezer Yudkowsky is a fraud_. 
+[Never go in against Eliezer Yudkowsky when anything is on the line.](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Ndtb22KYBxpBsagpj/eliezer-yudkowsky-facts?commentId=Aq9eWJmK6Liivn8ND)
+
+
+[Yudkowsky writes](https://twitter.com/ESYudkowsky/status/1096769579362115584):
+
+> When an epistemic hero seems to believe something crazy, you are often better off questioning "seems to believe" before questioning "crazy", and both should be questioned before shaking your head sadly about the mortal frailty of your heroes.

 
 

-]

 
 
 
 
 
 


@@ -500,6 +499,8 @@ https://twitter.com/ESYudkowsky/status/1096769579362115584
  * you could tell a story in which I'm the villain for undermining Team Singularity with my petty temporal concerns
 ]
 
  * you could tell a story in which I'm the villain for undermining Team Singularity with my petty temporal concerns
 ]
 

+/2020/Aug/memento-mori/#if-we-even-have-enough-time
+

 > [_Perhaps_, replied the cold logic](https://www.yudkowsky.net/other/fiction/the-sword-of-good). _If the world were at stake._
 >
 > _Perhaps_, echoed the other part of himself, _but that is not what was actually happening._
 > [_Perhaps_, replied the cold logic](https://www.yudkowsky.net/other/fiction/the-sword-of-good). _If the world were at stake._
 >
 > _Perhaps_, echoed the other part of himself, _but that is not what was actually happening._