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Where should I give spare computing power, as an aspiring rationalist/altruist? 2020-04-02T15:31:27.025Z

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Comment by 1point7point4 on Where should I give spare computing power, as an aspiring rationalist/altruist? · 2021-02-16T14:21:52.601Z · LW · GW

Never mind, I don't plan on doing anything because charity is not about helping (and because it uses a lot of electricity). However, mlc@home seems promising, if someone really feels the need to help somehow.

Comment by 1point7point4 on [deleted post] 2020-12-14T14:05:36.684Z

I think this should be merged with feedback & criticism. Thoughts?

Comment by 1point7point4 on [deleted post] 2020-12-13T20:20:27.609Z

Thanks for responding so quickly!
I agree with you now (and I'm going to agree with your minimalist policy for now too, just since I think you're better-informed than me).

Minor clarification that you might have already been aware of: I was thinking that posts tagged 'zombie' should also be tagged 'consciousness', if they didn't merge. Now I'm fairly sure they should be merged.

Comment by 1point7point4 on [deleted post] 2020-12-13T18:08:26.871Z

It seems like a separate 'zombie' tag might be useful if people are specifically looking to read people's thoughts on p-zombies, as opposed to just reading about consciousness in general. (There's probably some inferential step I'm not catching on to, though).

Comment by 1point7point4 on [deleted post] 2020-12-13T16:25:15.388Z

I don't know measure theory myself, if someone who knew it could improve this page, that would be much appreciated.

Comment by 1point7point4 on [deleted post] 2020-12-13T16:19:35.703Z

Not sure how okay it is to use external sources - if anyone wants to write their own definition, please go ahead.

Comment by 1point7point4 on [deleted post] 2020-12-13T15:56:38.014Z

It seems like this tag is a subset of the other one. I've added (very tentative) descriptions for both tags, but don't know they should be merged or not.

edit made two minutes later: not a subset i guess, since individuals can start projects

Comment by 1point7point4 on [deleted post] 2020-12-10T12:34:16.393Z

I'm not sure if we should make this tag apply to all posts of historical interest, or only posts with historical information. Thoughts, anyone?

Comment by 1point7point4 on Cardiologists and Chinese Robbers · 2020-07-06T14:24:19.687Z · LW · GW

See also: https://www.gwern.net/Littlewood

Comment by 1point7point4 on Recommended reading for new rationalists · 2020-04-17T17:55:10.959Z · LW · GW

That link is dead, but I found it on another site.

Comment by 1point7point4 on Archimedes's Chronophone · 2020-01-31T18:39:23.683Z · LW · GW

Since that's hindsight, we'd expect Archimedes to get something that was controversial thousands of years before but widely believed at the time.

Comment by 1point7point4 on The Failures of Eld Science · 2020-01-09T11:45:17.321Z · LW · GW

Along with zendo, mao might be a good game for practicing - you and the other mao players are scientists, while the grandmaster is the universe’s laws - you can induce the laws either by observing the other “scientists”, or by testing things out (possibly on accident). Jeffreyssai might say this reeks of competition, though - a possible fix would be to have all the “scientists” working on the same team.

Comment by 1point7point4 on A summary of the Hanson-Yudkowsky FOOM debate · 2020-01-09T10:06:23.620Z · LW · GW

This is an absolutely amazing read - somehow it never occurred to me that so many singularities had already happened.

Comment by 1point7point4 on …And I Show You How Deep The Rabbit Hole Goes · 2020-01-09T06:08:41.332Z · LW · GW

A small nitpick - tranquilizer darts take at least a few minutes to work (https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zzt5a/eli5_do_tranquilizer_darts_really_take_instant/). The story was amazing though.

Comment by 1point7point4 on The Virtue of Silence · 2020-01-09T05:24:59.549Z · LW · GW

I’ve heard of the term “History channel effect” to explain why that sort of topic doesn't get coverage in the news. The idea is that people would rather hear about topics that make them feel well-informed than topics that would actually make them more well-informed.

Comment by 1point7point4 on Cardiologists and Chinese Robbers · 2020-01-08T16:26:45.736Z · LW · GW

As a rule of thumb, you should prefer rates (“X commit Y crime 3x more often than normal”) and proportions (“1 in 10,000 X commit Y crime”). Be wary of quantities (“100 X have committed Y crime this year”) and examples (“look at all these stories of X doing Y”).

Comment by 1point7point4 on Schelling fences on slippery slopes · 2020-01-08T15:15:09.430Z · LW · GW

1984 (like animal farm) is an analogue to the USSR - Goldstein may represent Leon Trotsky. I’m not entirely sure if Emmanuel Goldstein corresponds to anyone, though - we don’t know a lot about him except that propaganda considers him a traitor.

Comment by 1point7point4 on Infinite Certainty · 2020-01-06T12:35:46.117Z · LW · GW

The link to Peter de Blanc is dead, try https://web.archive.org/web/20160305092845/http://www.spaceandgames.com/?p=27

Comment by 1point7point4 on Lotteries: A Waste of Hope · 2020-01-03T11:49:48.752Z · LW · GW

You might want to cite the "8 hours of TV a day" bit - if you look into houses' living room windows, you won't see TVs blaring through anywhere near a third of them. (note: this experiment is not endorsed by the author)

In response to your main question: being unproductive isn't a good reason to be more unproductive.

Comment by 1point7point4 on The Proper Use of Humility · 2020-01-03T11:24:32.490Z · LW · GW

Manned spaceships have dozens of fallback plans to keep astronauts safe, even though they don't anticipate things going wrong.

Comment by 1point7point4 on Explain/Worship/Ignore? · 2020-01-02T13:29:59.363Z · LW · GW

Are you looking for an explanation or opinions?

Comment by 1point7point4 on Explain/Worship/Ignore? · 2020-01-02T13:29:19.145Z · LW · GW

In this article's sense, yes - Explain means "try to make something less mysterious". For example, Newton Explained when devising the laws of physics, and a student who learns them is also doing some Explaining. Worship, on the other hand, means (in here, not in general) "revel in something's mysteriousness" (e.g. Newton seeing an apple fall from a tree, and saying "I guess phlogiston did it".) Ignore is the boring but sometimes practical option, saying "Eh, an apple fell from a tree" and leaving it at that.

Comment by 1point7point4 on Fake Causality · 2020-01-01T16:35:50.273Z · LW · GW

CO2 as a cause of climate change "pays rent in anticipation". Phlogiston as a cause of fire doesn't.

Comment by 1point7point4 on Hindsight Devalues Science · 2019-12-31T21:03:32.602Z · LW · GW

The link to Meyer's excerpt has been dead for two years, here's an archived link: https://web.archive.org/web/20170801042830/http://csml.som.ohio-state.edu:80/Music829C/hindsight.bias.html