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Comment by Al_Fin on On Expressing Your Concerns · 2007-12-27T09:37:59.000Z · LW · GW

Progress comes from the persons willing to be different and create a new approach to solving problems--or entire new industries. Conformity is the bane of the politically correct approach to "consensus." In a conformity environment the best one can hope for is a local optimum solution that will likely be outworn quickly as reality sets in.

The rush to premature consensus destroys the possibility of achieving a global optimum.

In Russia and China one can be shot for being different. In the west, one is merely ostracized and demonized.

Comment by Al_Fin on False Laughter · 2007-12-24T19:23:36.000Z · LW · GW

Why should Bush get to have all the fun? I want to be the tentacled monster with the Japanese schoolgirl!

Comment by Al_Fin on Evaporative Cooling of Group Beliefs · 2007-12-08T14:57:59.000Z · LW · GW

Most commenters refer to cultists as if they are not them. Wrong. Understanding how the brain works--how it clings to belief--does not place one outside his own brain.

It is our emotional core of thought that leads to irrational attachment to belief. If machine intelligence can precipitate around a different "thought model" it may escape most(?) of the irrationality of its forerunners.