It all started in summer 2007 (I was nineteen years old), when I came across _Overcoming Bias_, a blog on the theme of how to achieve more accurate beliefs. (I don't remember exactly how I was referred, but I think it was likely to have been [a link from Megan McArdle](https://web.archive.org/web/20071129181942/http://www.janegalt.net/archives/009783.html), then writing as "Jane Galt" at _Asymmetrical Information_.)
-[Although](http://www.overcomingbias.com/author/hal-finney) [technically](http://www.overcomingbias.com/author/james-miller) [a](http://www.overcomingbias.com/author/david-j-balan) [group](http://www.overcomingbias.com/author/andrew) [blog](http://www.overcomingbias.com/author/anders-sandberg), the vast majority of posts on _Overcoming Bias_ were by Robin Hanson or Eliezer Yudkowsky. I was previously acquainted in passing with Yudkowsky's [writing about future superintelligence](http://yudkowsky.net/obsolete/tmol-faq.html). (I had [mentioned him in my Diary once in 2005](/ancillary/diary/42/), albeit without spelling his name correctly.) Yudkowsky was now using _Overcoming Bias_ and the medium of blogging [to generate material for a future book about rationality](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vHPrTLnhrgAHA96ko/why-i-m-blooking). Hanson's posts I could take or leave, but Yudkowsky's sequences of posts about rationality (coming out almost-daily through early 2009, eventually totaling hundreds of thousands of words) were _amazingly great_, [drawing on fields](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tSgcorrgBnrCH8nL3/don-t-revere-the-bearer-of-good-info) from [cognitive](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2ftJ38y9SRBCBsCzy/scope-insensitivity) [psychology](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/R8cpqD3NA4rZxRdQ4/availability) to [evolutionary biology](https://www.lesswrong.com/s/MH2b8NfWv22dBtrs8) to explain the [mathematical](https://www.readthesequences.com/An-Intuitive-Explanation-Of-Bayess-Theorem) [principles](https://www.readthesequences.com/A-Technical-Explanation-Of-Technical-Explanation) [governing](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eY45uCCX7DdwJ4Jha/no-one-can-exempt-you-from-rationality-s-laws) _how intelligence works_—[the reduction of "thought"](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/p7ftQ6acRkgo6hqHb/dreams-of-ai-design) to [_cognitive algorithms_](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/HcCpvYLoSFP4iAqSz/rationality-appreciating-cognitive-algorithms). Intelligent systems that use [evidence](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6s3xABaXKPdFwA3FS/what-is-evidence) to construct [predictive](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/a7n8GdKiAZRX86T5A/making-beliefs-pay-rent-in-anticipated-experiences) models of the world around them—that have "true" "beliefs"—can _use_ those models to compute which actions will best achieve their goals. You simply won't believe how much this blog will change your life; I would later frequently [joke](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ha_ha_only_serious) that Yudkowsky rewrote my personality over the internet.
+[Although](http://www.overcomingbias.com/author/hal-finney) [technically](http://www.overcomingbias.com/author/james-miller) [a](http://www.overcomingbias.com/author/david-j-balan) [group](http://www.overcomingbias.com/author/andrew) [blog](http://www.overcomingbias.com/author/anders-sandberg), the vast majority of posts on _Overcoming Bias_ were by Robin Hanson or Eliezer Yudkowsky. I was previously acquainted in passing with Yudkowsky's [writing about future superintelligence](https://web.archive.org/web/20200217171258/https://yudkowsky.net/obsolete/tmol-faq.html). (I had [mentioned him in my Diary once in 2005](/ancillary/diary/42/), albeit without spelling his name correctly.) Yudkowsky was now using _Overcoming Bias_ and the medium of blogging [to generate material for a future book about rationality](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vHPrTLnhrgAHA96ko/why-i-m-blooking). Hanson's posts I could take or leave, but Yudkowsky's sequences of posts about rationality (coming out almost-daily through early 2009, eventually totaling hundreds of thousands of words) were _amazingly great_, [drawing on fields](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tSgcorrgBnrCH8nL3/don-t-revere-the-bearer-of-good-info) from [cognitive](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2ftJ38y9SRBCBsCzy/scope-insensitivity) [psychology](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/R8cpqD3NA4rZxRdQ4/availability) to [evolutionary biology](https://www.lesswrong.com/s/MH2b8NfWv22dBtrs8) to explain the [mathematical](https://www.readthesequences.com/An-Intuitive-Explanation-Of-Bayess-Theorem) [principles](https://www.readthesequences.com/A-Technical-Explanation-Of-Technical-Explanation) [governing](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eY45uCCX7DdwJ4Jha/no-one-can-exempt-you-from-rationality-s-laws) _how intelligence works_—[the reduction of "thought"](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/p7ftQ6acRkgo6hqHb/dreams-of-ai-design) to [_cognitive algorithms_](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/HcCpvYLoSFP4iAqSz/rationality-appreciating-cognitive-algorithms). Intelligent systems that use [evidence](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6s3xABaXKPdFwA3FS/what-is-evidence) to construct [predictive](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/a7n8GdKiAZRX86T5A/making-beliefs-pay-rent-in-anticipated-experiences) models of the world around them—that have "true" "beliefs"—can _use_ those models to compute which actions will best achieve their goals. You simply won't believe how much this blog will change your life; I would later frequently [joke](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ha_ha_only_serious) that Yudkowsky rewrote my personality over the internet.
There are a few things about me that I need to explain before I get into the topic-specific impact the blog had on me.
> Is it cheating if you deliberately define your personal identity such that the answer is _No_?
-(To which I now realize the correct answer is: Yes, it's fucking cheating! The map is not the territory! You can't change the current _referent_ of "personal identity" with the semantic mind game of declaring that "personal identity" now refers to something else! How dumb do you think we are?! But more on this later.)
+(To which I now realize the correct answer is: Yes, it's cheating! The map is not the territory! You can't change the current _referent_ of "personal identity" with the semantic mind game of declaring that "personal identity" now refers to something else! How dumb do you think we are?! But more on this later.)
people like me being incentivized to identify as part of a political pressure group that attempts to leverage claims of victimhood into claims on power
Another new cite: https://twitter.com/FollowSamir/status/1289168867831373825
+Another new cite: https://applieddivinitystudies.com/2020/09/05/rationality-winning/
+
darwin2500 "Women's leagues are for women, trans women are women. That's all the justification needed" https://old.reddit.com/r/TheMotte/comments/hym5xb/culture_war_roundup_for_the_week_of_july_27_2020/fzvfres/
another "Categories Were Made" cite, just as an example post: https://old.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/i10p4m/survey_on_moving_ssc_to_substack/fzwkfqk/
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2corc0/just_in_case_hes_a_reddit_troll/ (compare https://www.lesswrong.com/users/grendelkhan)
https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/a/16457 (compare https://www.lesswrong.com/users/wizzwizz4)
+https://www.ginamaya.co.uk/transgender-life/on-adopting-a-more-gender-critical-transgender-activism.html
+
https://reason.com/2020/10/09/coupled-barred-from-fostering-their-1-year-old-great-granddaughter-because-of-their-opposition-to-homosexuality-and-gender-transitioning/
egregore capture
https://twitter.com/ElaineAtwell/status/1314261010547695620
-digraph G {
-"systemic racism"->culture;
-"systemic racism"->"COVID risk";
-culture->"COVID risk";
-culture->"vitamin D";
-genetics->culture;
-genetics->"COVID risk";
-genetics->"skin color";
-genetics->"vitamin D";
-"skin color"->"vitamin D";
-"vitamin D"->"COVID risk";
-}
+https://blog.jim.com/war/the-way-through-to-the-other-side-of-the-left-singularity/
+> Every tenured academic everywhere in the world abruptly changes position overnight when the wind from Harvard and Yale changes.
+
+https://male-to-female.org/en/philosophy
+
+https://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/duty-to-disclose-adverse-legal-authority
+
+https://www.reddit.com/r/SneerClub/comments/jeky8e/voxs_kelsey_piper_on_being_called_a_tradwife_i/g9hoi6p/
+> Leftists don't need a Quiverfull movement, because we can count on each of our Vile Offspring to seduce and ruin at least four Quiverfull kids each.
+[the brood-parasite strategy made explicit!]
+
+https://www.overcomingbias.com/2016/09/write-to-say-stuff-worth-knowing.html
+> If you can then get other influential writers in overlapping topic areas to read and be persuaded by your argument, you might contribute to a larger process whereby we all learn faster by usefully dividing up the task of learning about everything.
+"One Size Does Not Fit All: In Support of Psychotherapy for Gender Dysphoria" https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-020-01844-2
_ "epilogue, thank you, theory of C., goodbye, &c." email to S.A.
_ explain "algorthimic" playing dumb to S.A.
_ comment to G.J.M.??
-_ message to P."O".L.??
_ Twitter
_ Reddit submissions: /r/philosophy and /r/TheMotte
_ S. Finley share
_ tag "Motivation and Political Context": "The SF Bay Area", "Criticisms of the Rationalist Movement", "Postmortems & Retrospectives"
+
_ I, Too, Dislike It
_ Friendship Practices of the Secret-Sharing Plain Speech Valley Squirrels
_ Yardstick abolition pessimism https://culturallyboundgender.wordpress.com/2018/11/13/gender-identity-isnt-a-box-its-a-yardstick/
_ Trans Kids on the Margin, and Harms From Misleading Training Data prior: https://sillyolme.wordpress.com/2019/07/19/how-many-trans-folk-are-there-really/ https://sillyolme.wordpress.com/2017/04/16/getting-lost-in-the-crowd/
_ "More Than We Can Say": High-Dimensional Social Science and the Conjunction of Small Effect Sizes
_ Comment on "Towards decolonising computational sciences" https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.14258
+_ My Identity Has a Better Brier Score Than Your Identity
+
I should email caption bliggers and ask if they know about AGP
+https://www.imagefap.com/profile/rickbennett
https://ericatgswapcaps.blogspot.com/2020/03/swap-clinic-testimonial-i-can-work-with.html
+https://ericatgswapcaps.blogspot.com/2020/10/swap-clinic-win-win-win.html
+
+reverse Wason selection task: https://twitter.com/ThetaGrunberg/status/1305296703088545792
I'm not usually—at least, not always—so much of a scrub as to play chess with a pigeon (which shits on the board and then struts around like it's won), or wrestle with a pig (which gets you both dirty, and the pig likes it), or dispute what the Tortise said to Achilles
Speakers of my generation are more likely to say "person" when sex isn't relevant, whereas older works (pre-second wave feminism?) would actually say "man" (or "woman"—see how anachronistic it feels to put the female option second and in parentheses?), presumably not because human nature has changed that much, but because of shifting cultural priorities about when sex is "relevant." (Modern speakers similarly frown on mentioning race (https://agentultra.com/blog/the-black-man-stopped-me/) when it's not relevant.)
+(My Identity Has a Better Brier Score)
+I'm skeptical of "ace"—I think it's just an identity label that can be successfully marketed to otherwise-ordinary people in the bottom-quartile of libido, by an ideology that wants to sell people identity labels to get them to join the coalition of sexual minorities
+You might reply: "But you identify as AGP, and attach emotional weight to that—isn't that just another identity label?"
+but the thing about AGP is that, I actually have reason to believe it "fits" the territory of the underlying psychological variation
+it's an expression of the theory that trans women (left-coded) and the subjects of that old Atlantic article about (right-coded) married crossdressers ("Conservative Men in Conservative Dresses") are the same thing
+invariant under the cultural coding
+
_ Eugenics Is Actually Good, You Worthless Cowards
Anyway, I kind of spent the next ten years reading everything I could about sex and gender and transgender and feminism and evopsych and doing various things with my social presentation—sometimes things I regretted and reverted after a lot of pain—to try to seem not-masculine, all the while assuming that my gender problems were clearly not the same thing as the gender problems of actual trans women, because the standard narrative is that that's about gender identity being discordant from sex assigned at birth, which was clearly not what my thing was. I thought, essentially, "Gee, it's too bad this beautiful word which so perfectly describes the beautiful feeling at the center of my life happened to be coined in the context of this controversial theory about the etiology of MtF transsexualism which is probably false because everyone says it's obviously false."
+-----
-Hi SneerClub! I noticed that you've enjoyed some of my previous work, so I thought I would go ahead and proactively share this one with you, because (I'm guessing) it must check almost all the boxes for top sneerable content: it's got Yudkowsky hero-worship, _and_ sexism (as you would define that), _and_ transphobia (as you would define that), _and_ weird sex stuff!
+_(content warning sexism)_
+_(content warning transphobia)_
+_(content warning too much information about weird fetishes)_
+_(content warning WTF did I just read)_
-(From _my_ perspective, I'm pouring my heart out about the most important thing in my life, but if someone else with a different perspective merely gets a condescending laugh out of it, I can only hope to have been—if only for a moment, between sneers—_understood_. And for that moment, I am grateful.)
+(October 2020, [TODO] words)
+
+
+-----
+
+Hi SneerClub! I noticed that you've enjoyed some of my previous work, so I thought I would go ahead and proactively share this one with you, because (I'm guessing) it probably checks most of the boxes for top sneerable content: it's got Yudkowsky hero-worship, _and_ sexism (as many of you would define that), _and_ transphobia (as many of you would define that), _and_ weird sex stuff!
+
+(From _my_ perspective, I'm pouring my heart out about the most important thing in my life, but if someone else with a different perspective would only sneer, then I can only hope to have been—if only for a moment, as part of the computation of the optimal sneer—_understood_. And for that moment, I am grateful.)
"Well, actually, we're ASHKENAZI supremacists" may not be as convincing a defense as you think :cold_sweat:
+A more innocent world in which "HSTS" stands for "HTTP strict transport security", and "MAP" stands for "maximum a posteriori"
+
I never expected to become a polarizing figure 1/5
like, compared to the ENTIRE REST OF SPACETIME, I'm yet another nice smart progressive Jewish trans girl, just like everyone else 2/5
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / commitdiff