(**SPOILERS** for _A Deepness in the Sky_ by Vernor Vinge)
-Apropos of absolutely nothing—and would I lie to you about that?!—I've been thinking a lot lately about Hrunkner Unnerby, one of the characters in the ["B"](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlotThreads) [story](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwoLinesNoWaiting) of Vernor Vinge's _A Deepness in the Sky_.
+Apropos of absolutely nothing—and would I lie to you about that?—ever since early 2020, I occasionally think about Hrunkner Unnerby, one of the characters in the ["B"](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlotThreads) [story](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwoLinesNoWaiting) of Vernor Vinge's _A Deepness in the Sky_.
The B story focuses on spider-like aliens whose rapidly-industrializing civilization is entering its Information Age, native to a planet whose star "turns off" for 215 years out of every 250, during which time life on the planet goes into hibernation. The aliens' reproductive cycle is synced with the appearance and disappearance of their sun, resulting in discrete birth cohorts: almost all children in a generation are the same age, conceived just before the world goes into hibernation, and born when the sun re-emerges. Rare "oophase" (out of phase) children are regarded as unnatural and discriminated against.
[TODO—
* children's Science hour
- * One of the children, Brent, is intellectually challenged.
* children are kidnapped, Hrunker's remark causes Smith to grim trigger him
- * years later, Smith admits that she feels about living through the dark as he does
+ * years later, Smith admits that she feels about living through the dark as he does; one of the children, Brent, is intellectually challenged
]
Every improvement is a necessarily a change, but _not every change is an improvement_.
During a phone call around early December 2019, Michael had pointed out that since [MIRI's 2019 fundraiser](https://intelligence.org/2019/12/02/miris-2019-fundraiser/) was going on, and we had information about how present-day MIRI differed from its marketing story, there was a time-sensitive opportunity to reach out to a perennial major donor, whom I'll call "Ethan", and fill him in on what we thought we knew about the Blight.
-I wrote to Jessica and Jack Gallagher (cc'ing Michael) on 14 December asking how we should organize this. (Jessica and Jack had relevant testimony about working at MIRI, which would be of more central interest to "Ethan" than my story about how the "rationalists" had lost their way.) Michael also mentioned "Tabitha", a lawyer who had been in the MIRI orbit for a long time, as another person to talk to.
+On 14 December 2019, I wrote to Jessica and Jack Gallagher, another disaffected ex-MIRI researcher, asking how we should organize this. (Jessica and Jack had relevant testimony about working at MIRI, which would be of more central interest to "Ethan" than my story about how the "rationalists" had lost their way.) Michael also mentioned "Tabitha", a lawyer who had been in the MIRI orbit for a long time, as another person to talk to.
-On 22 December, I apologized, saying that I wanted to postpone setting up the meeting, partially because I was on a roll with my productive blogging spree, and partially for a psychological reason: I was feeling subjective pressure to appease Michael by doing the thing that he explicitly suggested because of my loyalty to him, but that would be wrong, because Michael's ideology said that people should follow their sense of opportunity rather than obeying orders. I might feel motived to reach out to "Ethan" and "Tabitha" in January.
+About a week later, I apologized, saying that I wanted to postpone setting up the meeting, partially because I was on a roll with my productive blogging spree, and partially for a psychological reason: I was feeling subjective pressure to appease Michael by doing the thing that he explicitly suggested because of my loyalty to him, but that would be wrong, because Michael's ideology said that people should follow their sense of opportunity rather than obeying orders. I might feel motived to reach out to "Ethan" and "Tabitha" in January.
Michael said that implied that my sense of opportunity was driven by politics, and that I believed that simple honesty couldn't work; he only wanted me to acknowledge that. I was not inclined to affirm that characterization; it seemed like any conversation with "Ethan" and "Tabitha" would be partially optimized to move money, which I thought was politics.
✓ we can go stronger than "I definitely don't think Yudkowsky thinks of himself
✓ cut words from December 2019 blogging spree
✓ mention "Darkest Timeline" and Skyrms somewhere
------
-_ Ben on "locally coherent coordination": use direct quotes for Ben's language—maybe rewrite in my own language (footnote?) as an understanding test
+
+pt. 3 content fills—
+_ the skeptical family friend's view
+_ in a footnote, defend the "cutting my dick off" rhetorical flourish
+_ footnote explaining quibbles on clarification
_ "Not the Incentives"—rewrite given that I'm not shielding Ray
+_ I still mostly feel like being more detailed than "fraud"; later thoughts on jump to evaluation, translating between different groups' language
+_ FTX validated Ben's view of EA!!
+
+pt. 3 minor—
+_ Ben on "locally coherent coordination": use direct quotes for Ben's language—maybe rewrite in my own language (footnote?) as an understanding test
+_ do I have a better identifier than "Vassarite"?
+_ maybe I do want to fill in a few more details about the Sasha disaster, conditional on what I end up writing regarding Scott's prosecution?—and conditional on my separate retro email—also the Zolpidem thing
+_ link to protest flyer
+_ "it was the same thing here"—most readers are not going to understand what I see as the obvious analogy
_ better explanation of MOPs in "Social Reality" scuffle
_ better context on "scam" &c. earlier
-_ meeting with Ray?
_ mention that I was miffed about "Boundaries?" not getting Curated, while one of Euk's animal posts did
_ establish usage of "coordination group" vs. "posse"?
_ LessWrong vs. GreaterWrong for comment links?
_ cut words from descriptions of other posts! (if people want to read them, they can click through ... but on review, these descriptions seem pretty reasonable?)
_ try to clarify Abram's categories view (Michael didn't get it) (but it still seems clear to me on re-read?)
-_ I still mostly feel like being more detailed than "fraud"; later thoughts on jump to evaluation, translating between different groups' language
-_ FTX validated Ben's view of EA!!
_ explicitly mention http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/bad-faith-behavior-not-feeling/
--------
-_ in a footnote, defend the "cutting my dick off" rhetorical flourish
-_ choice quotes in "end of the Category War" thank you note
-_ do I have a better identifier than "Vassarite"?
-_ maybe I do want to fill in a few more details about the Sasha disaster, conditional on what I end up writing regarding Scott's prosecution?—and conditional on my separate retro email—also the Zolpidem thing
-_ footnote explaining quibbles? (the first time I tried to write this, I hesitated, not sure if necessary)
-_ "it was the same thing here"—most readers are not going to understand what I see as the obvious analogy
-_ first mention of Jack G. should introduce him properly
-_ link to protest flyer
-
+_ meeting with Ray (maybe?)
pt. 4 edit tier—
_ mention Nick Bostrom email scandal (and his not appearing on the one-sentence CAIS statement)
_ "Doublethink" ref in Xu discussion should mention that Word of God Eliezerfic clarification that it's not about telling others
_ https://www.greaterwrong.com/posts/vvc2MiZvWgMFaSbhx/book-review-the-bell-curve-by-charles-murray/comment/git7xaE2aHfSZyLzL
+
things to discuss with Michael/Ben/Jessica—
_ Anna on Paul Graham
_ Yudkowsky thinking reasoning wasn't useful
-_ Michael's SLAPP against REACH
-_ Michael on creepy and crazy men
-_ elided Sasha disaster
+_ Michael's SLAPP against REACH (new)
+_ Michael on creepy and crazy men (new)
+_ elided Sasha disaster (new)
pt. 3–5 prereaders—
_ David Xu
_ Ray
_ Ruby
-_ Teortaxes? (he might be interested)
_ Alicorner #drama ("Is anyone interested in offering political advice or 'hostile advice'")
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / commitdiff