tap draft

[Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git] / content / drafts / sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-in-relation-to-my-gender-problems.md

diff --git a/content/drafts/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-in-relation-to-my-gender-problems.md b/content/drafts/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-in-relation-to-my-gender-problems.md
index f273577..720f2de 100644 (file)
--- a/content/drafts/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-in-relation-to-my-gender-problems.md
+++ b/content/drafts/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-in-relation-to-my-gender-problems.md
@@ -638,7 +638,7 @@ In that November 2018 Twitter thread, [Yudkowsky wrote](https://archive.is/y5V9i
 
 This seems to suggest that gender pronouns in the English language as currently spoken don't have effective truth conditions. I think this is false _as a matter of cognitive science_. If someone told you, "Hey, you should come meet my friend at the mall, she is really cool and I think you'll like her," and then the friend turned out to look like me (as I am now), _you would be surprised_. (Even if people in Berkeley would socially punish you for _admitting_ that you were surprised.) The "she ... her" pronouns would prompt your brain to _predict_ that the friend would appear to be female, and that prediction would be _falsified_ by someone who looked like me (as I am now). Pretending that the social-norms dispute is about chromosomes was a _bullshit_ [weakmanning](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/12/weak-men-are-superweapons/) move on the part of Yudkowsky, [who had once written that](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qNZM3EGoE5ZeMdCRt/reversed-stupidity-is-not-intelligence) "[t]o argue against an idea honestly, you should argue against the best arguments of the strongest advocates[;] [a]rguing against weaker advocates proves _nothing_, because even the strongest idea will attract weak advocates." Thanks to the skills I learned from Yudkowsky's _earlier_ writing, I wasn't dumb enough to fall for it, but we can imagine someone otherwise similar to me who was, who might have thereby been misled into making worse life decisions.
 
 
 This seems to suggest that gender pronouns in the English language as currently spoken don't have effective truth conditions. I think this is false _as a matter of cognitive science_. If someone told you, "Hey, you should come meet my friend at the mall, she is really cool and I think you'll like her," and then the friend turned out to look like me (as I am now), _you would be surprised_. (Even if people in Berkeley would socially punish you for _admitting_ that you were surprised.) The "she ... her" pronouns would prompt your brain to _predict_ that the friend would appear to be female, and that prediction would be _falsified_ by someone who looked like me (as I am now). Pretending that the social-norms dispute is about chromosomes was a _bullshit_ [weakmanning](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/12/weak-men-are-superweapons/) move on the part of Yudkowsky, [who had once written that](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qNZM3EGoE5ZeMdCRt/reversed-stupidity-is-not-intelligence) "[t]o argue against an idea honestly, you should argue against the best arguments of the strongest advocates[;] [a]rguing against weaker advocates proves _nothing_, because even the strongest idea will attract weak advocates." Thanks to the skills I learned from Yudkowsky's _earlier_ writing, I wasn't dumb enough to fall for it, but we can imagine someone otherwise similar to me who was, who might have thereby been misled into making worse life decisions.
 

-[TODO: ↑ less aggressive about E.Y.'s motives, just focus on consequences for people like me who trust him]
+[TODO: ↑ tone]

 
 If this "rationality" stuff is useful for _anything at all_, you would _expect_ it to be useful for _practical life decisions_ like _whether or not I should cut my dick off_. 
 
 
 If this "rationality" stuff is useful for _anything at all_, you would _expect_ it to be useful for _practical life decisions_ like _whether or not I should cut my dick off_. 
 


@@ -666,7 +666,6 @@ I think what actually happens is that people like Yudkowsky and Alexander rise t
 
 It makes sense for public figures to not want to commit political suicide!
 
 
 It makes sense for public figures to not want to commit political suicide!
 

-

 [TODO: risk factor of people getting drawn in to a subculture that claims to be about reasoning, but is actualy very heavily optimized for cutting boys dicks off.
 We already get a lot of shit for being right-wing; People use trans as political cover;
 
 [TODO: risk factor of people getting drawn in to a subculture that claims to be about reasoning, but is actualy very heavily optimized for cutting boys dicks off.
 We already get a lot of shit for being right-wing; People use trans as political cover;
 


@@ -675,11 +674,10 @@ https://twitter.com/yashkaf/status/1275524303430262790
 > The two demographics most over-represented in the SlateStarCodex readership according to the surveys are transgender people and Ph.D. holders.
 
 https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=5310
 > The two demographics most over-represented in the SlateStarCodex readership according to the surveys are transgender people and Ph.D. holders.
 
 https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=5310

-> Another thing that would’ve complicated the picture: the rationalist community’s legendary openness to alternative gender identities and sexualities, before
--
-]

 
 

+> Another thing that would've complicated the picture: the rationalist community’s legendary openness to alternative gender identities and sexualities

 
 

+]

 
 Someone asked me: "If we randomized half the people at [OpenAI](https://openai.com/) to use trans pronouns one way, and the other half to use it the other way, do you think they would end up with significantly different productivity?"
 
 
 Someone asked me: "If we randomized half the people at [OpenAI](https://openai.com/) to use trans pronouns one way, and the other half to use it the other way, do you think they would end up with significantly different productivity?"
 


@@ -703,15 +701,15 @@ The thing I'm objecting to is this _culture of narcissistic Orwellian mind games
 
 [TODO: my friends should exist, but this culture is nuts
 
 
 [TODO: my friends should exist, but this culture is nuts
 

-https://twitter.com/caraesten/status/1092472430465929216
-> damn one extremely bad way to start my day is having the receptionist at slack say I look like a male celebrity
-> I'm so mad. wow. like. I look like this right now, how could anyone ever think that was an okay thing to say???
+anecdote about someone complaining that a receptionist compared them to a male celebrity
+
+_It was a complement!_ (That poor receptionist was thinking of David Bowie or Eddie Izzard, rather than trying to be hateful)

 
 

-It was a complement! I don't _want_ people to have to doublethink around their perceptions of me, pretend not to notice
+I don't _want_ people to have to doublethink around their perceptions of me, pretend not to notice

  
  

-Ziz's complaint that I'm siding with the oppressors in conceptual warfare
+the complaint that I'm siding with the oppressors in conceptual warfare

 the political incentives propagate recursively, a phase transition: in a culture it's normal for AGP males to transition, any sub-culture where they don't is subject to attack as transphobic
 the political incentives propagate recursively, a phase transition: in a culture it's normal for AGP males to transition, any sub-culture where they don't is subject to attack as transphobic

-I want to stay aligned with _actual women_, many of whom have an interest in excluding me and Ziz
+I want to stay aligned with _actual women_, many of whom have an interest in excluding me

 ]
 
 [I have seen the destiny of my neurotype, and am putting forth a convulsive effort to wrench it off its path. My weapon is clear writing.](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/i8q4vXestDkGTFwsc/human-evil-and-muddled-thinking)
 ]
 
 [I have seen the destiny of my neurotype, and am putting forth a convulsive effort to wrench it off its path. My weapon is clear writing.](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/i8q4vXestDkGTFwsc/human-evil-and-muddled-thinking)