> In the end, the resolution of such controversy often depends upon one's standard of proof, a standard dictated in turn by political beliefs. I impose the highest standards of proof, for example, on claims about biological inequality, my high standards stemming directly from my philosophical and political beliefs in equality. On the other hand, given the same claims, a scientist happier with present-day social arrangements would no doubt be satisfied with weaker proof. How much and how strong the proof one demands before accepting a conclusion is a matter of judgment, a judgment that is embedded in the fabric of one's individual belief system.
-S. Goldberg, _Why Men Rule: A Theory of Male Dominance_ (the previous edition of which was titled _The Inevitability of Patriarchy_ (!!)), Introduction:
+<a id="goldberg"></a>S. Goldberg, _Why Men Rule: A Theory of Male Dominance_ (the previous edition of which was titled _The Inevitability of Patriarchy_ (!!)), Introduction:
> [T]he relevant point here is that the consequences of an acceptance of an empirical explanation have nothing to do with the correctness of that explanation. This is so obvious that for thousands of years the attempt to refute an explanation by citing the (putative) bad effects of an acceptance of that explanation has been recognized as fallacious. Even if acceptance of the belief that the world is round somehow threatened our species' survival, that would not make the earth flat. Truth is independent of consequences.
>
>
> —Laura Barrett, ["Deception Island Optimists Club"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L4yB0LtP0U)
-Six or fifteen or twenty or forty-six months later—depending on when you start counting—I think I'm almost ready to stop grieving and move on with my life. I have two more posts to write for the robot-cult blog about the philosophy of language (a short one explaining the thing [Brian Skyrms and the other guy taught me about about how to separate denotative meaning from mere information-transfer by looking at the common interest subgame](/papers/skyrms-barrett-propositional_content_in_signals.pdf), and a long one re-stating my thesis about the cognitive function of categorization with _somewhat more math this time_ and then using it to give an account of _mimickry_)—and one long post to write here (some robot-cult liturgical commentary plus necessary autobiographical scaffolding)—and then I'll be _done_.
+Six or fifteen or twenty or forty-six months later—depending on when you start counting—I think I'm almost ready to stop grieving and move on with my life. I have two more posts to write for the robot-cult blog about the philosophy of language (a short one explaining the thing [Brian Skyrms and the other guy taught me about about how to separate denotative meaning from mere information-transfer by looking at the common interest subgame](/papers/skyrms-barrett-propositional_content_in_signals.pdf), and a long one re-stating my thesis about the cognitive function of categorization with somewhat more math this time and then using it to give an account of _mimickry_)—and one long post to write here (some robot-cult liturgical commentary plus necessary autobiographical scaffolding)—and then I'll be _done_.
Not done writing. Done _grieving_. Done with this impotent rage that expects (normative sense) this world to be something other than what I know enough to expect (positive sense).
-Today I "e-ttended" the conference associated with this open-source scene I've been into for the past few years—although I've been so distracted by the Category War that I've landed exactly one commit in master in the last 13 months. (I think I'm still allowed to say "in master.") Traditionally (since 2016), this has been [my annual occasion](/2019/Aug/a-love-that-is-out-of-anyones-control/#tech-conference) to travel up to Portland (the _real_ Portland, and not a cowardly obfuscation) and stay with friend of the blog [Sophia](/author/sophia/) (since 2017), but everything is remote this year because of the pandemic.
+On Thursday, I "e-ttended" the conference associated with this open-source scene I've been into for a while—although I've been so distracted by the Category War that I've landed [exactly one commit](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/commit/d1cdb02e4d4) in master in the last 13 months. (I think I'm still allowed to say "in master", although ["whitelist" is out](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/74127).)
-I continue to be profoundly alienated by how thoroughly the finest technical minds of my generation are wholly owned by Blue Egregore. I fear the malicious glee with which they proclaim that everything is political, that anyone with reservations about the Code of Conduct is _ipso facto_ a bigot, how empathy is as important if not more so than technical excellence.
+Traditionally (since 2016), this has been [my annual occasion](/2019/Aug/a-love-that-is-out-of-anyones-control/#tech-conference) to travel up to Portland (the _real_ Portland, and not a cowardly obfuscation) and stay with friend of the blog [Sophia](/author/sophia/) (since 2017), but everything is remote this year because of the pandemic.
-I can't even think of them as enemies. We're the _same people_. I was born in 1987 and grew up in California with the same [glorious ideal of equality](/2017/Dec/theres-a-land-that-i-see-or-the-spirit-of-intervention/) as everyone else. I just—did some reading outside the standard curriculum. And stopped receiving updates from the Egregore a few years back. I suppose from their perspective, an unpatched copy of Social Liberalism 2009 must look hopelessly out-of-date.
+But if I'm serious about exiting my grief loop, I need to stop being so profoundly alienated by how thoroughly the finest technical minds of my generation are wholly owned by Blue Egregore. I fear the righteous glee with which they proclaim that everything is political, that anyone with reservations about the Code of Conduct is _ipso facto_ a bigot, how empathy is as important if not more so than technical excellence ...
-https://arbital.greaterwrong.com/p/corrigibility?l=45
+I can't even think of them as enemies. We're the _same people_. I was born in 1987 and grew up in California with the same [glorious ideal of equality](/2017/Dec/theres-a-land-that-i-see-or-the-spirit-of-intervention/) as everyone else. I just—stopped receiving updates a few years back. From their perspective, an unpatched copy of Social Liberalism 2009 must look hopelessly out-of-date with the Current Year consensus, which everyone wants to be [corrigible](https://arbital.greaterwrong.com/p/corrigibility) to.
-The GPT-3 demos have been tickling my neuroticism.
+Or maybe I'm not _even_ running unpatched Liberalism 2009? I still want everyone to have nice things (where, _e.g._, women and black people are trivially part of "everyone"), but I've done a lot of off-curriculum reading—[it usually begins with Ayn Rand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Usually_Begins_with_Ayn_Rand), but it gets [much](/2020/Apr/book-review-human-diversity/) [worse](/2017/Jan/and-yet-none-more-blameable/#goldberg).
-[Lower Decks]
+One of the talks was about using our software for computational biology. There was something I wanted to say in the Discord channel, related to how I might want to redirect my energies after I'm done grieving. I typed it out in my Emacs `*scratch*` buffer, but, after weighing the risks for a few seconds, deleted a parenthetical.
+
+What I posted was:
> really excited to hear about applying tech skills to biology; my current insurance dayjob is not terribly inspiring, and I've been wondering if I should put effort into making more of an impact with my career
+The parenthetical I deleted was:
+
> (_e.g._ if someone in the world is working on <https://www.gwern.net/Embryo-selection> and needs programmers)
-Ens. Mariner
+It probably wouldn't have mattered either way.
+
+
+
+The GPT-3 demos have been tickling my neuroticism.
+
+
-fire
-https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2007/05/antisingularity/
+
+https://palladiummag.com/2019/08/05/the-real-problem-at-yale-is-not-free-speech/
+https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2007/05/antisingularity/
+https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KnQs55tjxWopCzKsk/the-ai-timelines-scam
+
+
+
+[Lower Decks]
+
+
+Ens. Mariner personality tests
+
+fire
+
/2017/Sep/grim-trigger-or-the-parable-of-the-honest-man-and-the-god-of-marketing/
and the honest man said, "Cooperate."
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / commitdiff