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Comment by DaveK on Einstein's Arrogance · 2013-10-23T13:39:19.137Z · LW · GW

Realize his theory was replacing ether theory. As people learned more, ether theory required increasingly arbitrary "patches" to work. If GR was not simpler then Ether theory, it wasn't a good candidate to replace it, as lorentzian transformations in ether theory still worked mathematically.

Comment by DaveK on The Tragedy of Group Selectionism · 2013-10-23T13:21:25.127Z · LW · GW

Bingo. Free rider punishment is a big factor here. If an organism is dependent on a social group for survival, it has to limit itself to reproductive strategies that will maintain its membership in the group.

Comment by DaveK on Existential Risk II · 2013-10-23T06:56:05.442Z · LW · GW

Since the idea is existential risk, why not just use Tacgnol? It works especially well, since tacgnol also represents scope insensitivity. (Gnoool si Tacgnol.)

Comment by DaveK on Rationality Quotes June 2013 · 2013-06-10T10:53:31.006Z · LW · GW

Well, I really enjoy music, but I made the deliberate choice to not learn about music (in terms of notes, chords, etc.). The reason being that what I get from music is a profound experience, and I was worried that knowledge of music in terms of reductionist structure might change the way I experience hearing music. (Of course some knowledge inevitably seeps in.)