Posts

How do I view my replies? 2019-10-05T16:05:04.014Z
Links passing through api.viglink.com? 2013-04-27T12:39:02.727Z
Phil Zimbardo answering questions on Reddit 2012-06-06T17:20:59.020Z
Looking for a quote 2011-07-10T22:55:39.186Z
Looking for a comic that was posted here 2011-06-17T19:19:07.403Z
[LINK] Wondermark comic talks about "carpe diem" vs. "think more" 2011-06-04T04:15:35.877Z
Can't downvote 2011-06-01T22:06:30.950Z
Michio Kaku to answer questions from a Reddit thread 2010-12-24T05:26:31.495Z
Kazakhstan's president urges scientists to find the elixir of life 2010-12-10T04:17:13.544Z
Transhumanism thread in progress at Reddit 2010-11-25T20:46:56.517Z

Comments

Comment by Document on "I don't know." · 2019-12-05T03:52:46.252Z · LW · GW

Refraining from questioning the meaning of "to proposing", why is there a degree symbol in your link? Was that added by the site?

Comment by Document on "I don't know." · 2019-12-05T03:50:12.146Z · LW · GW

An assumption with no basis, I trust you realized on reflection.

Comment by Document on LW Women Submissions: On Misogyny · 2017-08-10T01:05:08.278Z · LW · GW

both A and B used the word "body" in places where I would have expected "self" or "mind" or "person"

I don't know where it originates or whether it serves any deliberate purpose, but that's common in social justice writing.

Comment by Document on LW Women- Minimizing the Inferential Distance · 2017-08-10T00:28:54.037Z · LW · GW

Interesting to read this shortly after this. Does Ta-Nehisi Coates have "influence"?

Comment by Document on Of Gender and Rationality · 2017-08-10T00:18:34.328Z · LW · GW

Did you mean to post that somewhere else?

Comment by Document on That other kind of status · 2016-10-20T05:06:03.068Z · LW · GW

Initial reaction: "That's news?".

That said, your link seems to be dead, with no archive. Do you have it saved?

Comment by Document on Article on IQ: The Inappropriately Excluded · 2016-09-20T20:14:37.441Z · LW · GW

From the comments:

Let me demonstrate how the summary statistics you report are entirely consistent with models which totally contradict your inferences.
(...)
your statistical model is bad and the data cannot support any alarmist claims about society discriminating enormously against high IQ or the need for a 'clarion call'.

There's no response to this from the author despite the passage of more than a year. Any thoughts?

Comment by Document on The Sacred Mundane · 2016-09-14T16:20:16.578Z · LW · GW

How did it go? It seems like it would create some unsettling ambiguity in the "happy" ending.

Comment by Document on Bayes for Schizophrenics: Reasoning in Delusional Disorders · 2016-09-14T16:19:43.160Z · LW · GW

Why not here?

Comment by Document on Rationality Quotes July 2016 · 2016-07-02T18:52:22.537Z · LW · GW

Crazy guy: Hey, June*! Do you know that my cabinets keep opening and closing by themselves?
June*: Well, do you believe in ghosts?
Crazy guy: Yes, I do!
June*: Maybe your place is haunted, and the ghosts just want to say hello.
Crazy guy, after thinking a while: No, I think it's just my schizophrenia.

Allegedly overheard.

Comment by Document on Rationality Quotes July 2016 · 2016-07-02T18:42:46.558Z · LW · GW

They didn't anticipate what the Internet would become--because they weren't fucking insane...

Robert Evans, Cracked

Related: Stranger Than History.

Comment by Document on Stranger Than History · 2016-07-02T18:41:39.342Z · LW · GW

They didn't anticipate what the Internet would become--because they weren't fucking insane...

Robert Evans, Cracked

Comment by Document on Say It Loud · 2016-06-14T03:29:34.066Z · LW · GW

"I just don't like to see you make a fool of yourself."

"Oh!" MacBride stopped, glared. "I just should be a strong, silent guy, huh? Well, listen to me, Harry. I've noticed that a strong, silent guy is usually that way because he don't know anything. I'm willing to beef around, talk my head off, make a fool of myself—if it'll get me anywhere."

Frederick Nebel, "Doors in the Dark"

Comment by Document on Rationality Quotes June 2016 · 2016-06-14T03:23:36.767Z · LW · GW

"I just don't like to see you make a fool of yourself."

"Oh!" MacBride stopped, glared. "I just should be a strong, silent guy, huh? Well, listen to me, Harry. I've noticed that a strong, silent guy is usually that way because he don't know anything. I'm willing to beef around, talk my head off, make a fool of myself—if it'll get me anywhere."

Frederick Nebel, "Doors in the Dark"

Edit: Related: Say It Loud.

Comment by Document on May 2015 Media Thread · 2016-05-17T04:22:53.668Z · LW · GW

Bit late, but: IIRC the post-credits scene implies that Ultron was somehow really under Thanos' control, via the Infinity Stone Thanos originally gave to Loki (and/or its corruption/influence via Stark via Wanda Maximoff).

I suppose it might be giving the movie too much credit to argue that Ultron was at no point honestly explaining his plans, but instead saying whatever he expected would confuse and/or demoralize his enemies.

The question of liability is sort of alluded to in the latest movie, Civil War; though the short answer seems to be no.

In the end, the only real answer is always "it's all made up and what you see is what you get".

Comment by Document on May 2016 Media Thread · 2016-05-17T03:39:00.223Z · LW · GW

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., S03E18: "The Singularity". Aired April 26. The team wants to find a biologist whose work they need.

Simmons: He was asked to step down a month before for conducting irregular experiments.
Lincoln: "Irregular" meaning...?
Fitz: (grimly) He's a rumored transhumanist.
Coulson (who previously collected a set of trading cards commemorating, and later worked with, a man who was biologically augmented in the 1940s; worked with and against various members of an alien civilization whose advanced magic/technology allows them to live for thousands of years; ran, tried to have shut down, and later had his life saved by an advanced research project dedicated to reviving the clinically dead; fought a Hydra faction led by a man who'd uploaded his mind to a bank of computers in the 1970s; worked closely with a biologically and technologically upgraded cyborg; and has a prosthetic arm with super strength among its features)**: A what? Simmons: People who believe in using science and technology to transcend our biological limitations. Their goal is... Lincoln: Become more than human. Timely. Fitz: Digital immortality, superintelligence... Coulson:** Okay. I'm glad everyone knows what it is.

(The episode goes on to portray "transhumanists" as sexy, stylish young people who meet in secret clubs to exchange illegal(?) enhancements. The biologist appears to enthusiastically join a villain who wants to end conflict by converting the world into his mind slaves.)

Comment by Document on Lesswrong 2016 Survey · 2016-03-26T00:32:30.395Z · LW · GW

Is there a deadline?

Comment by Document on Rationality Quotes Thread January 2016 · 2016-01-26T00:24:10.629Z · LW · GW

The user who posted the comment above

...katydee?

Comment by Document on Open thread for December 24-31, 2013 · 2016-01-17T16:19:59.025Z · LW · GW

Double-dipping to add: Calibre recommends not using PDFs as your source format if at all avoidable.

I feel like I should emphasize that it's not just that the format is ill-suited to conversion, but that Calibre's conversion routine for it is particularly poor; I quit using it when I noticed that the output was frequently truncated early.

Better conversion options:

  • The Amazon Send to Kindle application's built-in conversion function
  • Opening in a PDF reader and copying and pasting into a word processor
  • Searching online for key text and seeing if you can find the document on a Web page; or, if you find the PDF online, saving Google's HTML-converted cached copy

All of those could potentially mess up equations and the like, though; so you might just have to deal with it or get a bigger device.

Comment by Document on Consequences of the Non-Existence of Perfect Theoretical Rationality · 2016-01-11T18:37:03.861Z · LW · GW

(retracted)

Comment by Document on Palatable presentation of rationality to the layperson · 2016-01-11T18:34:43.422Z · LW · GW

I would put this in the Map and Territory field. Or maybe it's a belief paying rent? Maybe both.

Not sure what this means.

Eliezer has an account here and is a very prominent figure if you check out the sequences.

Hamish Sinclair has an account at Marathon's Story Forum and is a very prominent figure if you check out the main site, but that didn't stop him randomly switching to a new account as "Godot". Is EY really so much less eccentric, and furthermore universally known to be by everyone but me?

Comment by Document on Consequences of the Non-Existence of Perfect Theoretical Rationality · 2016-01-11T18:20:27.016Z · LW · GW

(retracted)

Comment by Document on Consequences of the Non-Existence of Perfect Theoretical Rationality · 2016-01-11T17:21:56.013Z · LW · GW

I made no claim that those are the only two possibilities.

On reflection, I see that you're right; I inferred too much from your comment. What you said was that you'd be interested in an explanation of your error, if and only if you committed one; followed by asking the separate, largely independent question of whether Eugine/Azathoth/Ra/Lion was punishing you for not being right-wing enough again. I erroneously read your comment as saying that you'd be interested in (1) an explanation of your error or (2) the absence of such an explanation, which would prove the Eugine hypothesis by elimination. Sorry for jumping the gun and forcing you into a bunch of unnecessary analysis.

Comment by Document on Consequences of the Non-Existence of Perfect Theoretical Rationality · 2016-01-11T15:16:46.637Z · LW · GW

(retracted)

Comment by Document on Palatable presentation of rationality to the layperson · 2016-01-11T14:29:18.610Z · LW · GW

I strongly disapprove, since it leads casual readers to believe that you're Yudkowsky and/or some official representative of the website. But I have no authority, and nobody else seems to mind, so that's as far as I can go.

Comment by Document on Palatable presentation of rationality to the layperson · 2016-01-10T23:45:12.622Z · LW · GW

I hesitate to ask this, because the fact that you've been posting for six months without it being asked suggests that I'm missing something obvious. But I'm feeling lazy.

Are you actually Less Wrong?

Comment by Document on The Library of Scott Alexandria · 2015-11-12T04:10:51.510Z · LW · GW

Thanks! Downloaded; I don't know whether I'll actually read it (it being apparently over 476,000 words), but it's great to have.

Did you use the method RicardoFonseca described?

Comment by Document on The Library of Scott Alexandria · 2015-09-14T06:27:58.076Z · LW · GW

Any chance of a combined ebook version?

Comment by Document on I need a protocol for dangerous or disconcerting ideas. · 2015-07-15T05:16:57.583Z · LW · GW

Anecdote: I haven't received a PM reply from him since 2013.

Comment by Document on Singularity Institute is now Machine Intelligence Research Institute · 2015-04-11T04:21:54.472Z · LW · GW

I wonder if anyone suggested the Council for Understanding Logic and Technology.

Comment by Document on Zombies! Zombies? · 2015-03-24T23:51:34.514Z · LW · GW

Interesting. It sounds like "dodging" and "swallowing" are equally misused in Science Doesn't Trust Your Rationality, but in different ways.

Comment by Document on Zombies! Zombies? · 2015-03-24T23:24:25.960Z · LW · GW

I would seriously nominate this as the largest bullet ever bitten
Why would anyone bite a bullet that large?
No, the drive to bite this bullet

This has bugged me for a while: is there a definition of "biting" or "dodging" a "bullet"? It seems to be used here in a way exactly opposite how I've seen it used elsewhere.

Comment by Document on Just Lose Hope Already · 2015-03-22T01:00:51.402Z · LW · GW

I guess technically it's "too late" to give up on a dream if you've already accomplished it; but I'm not sure that's how most people would read the statement.

Comment by Document on Just Lose Hope Already · 2015-03-21T04:47:50.930Z · LW · GW

It's NEVER too late to give up on your dreams. :-)

Comment by Document on Open thread, Nov. 24 - Nov. 30, 2014 · 2014-11-26T02:13:04.463Z · LW · GW

Similar "problem"(?): Acausal trade with Azathoth

Comment by Document on xkcd on the AI box experiment · 2014-11-23T21:47:54.907Z · LW · GW

The last quote isn't from Yudkowsky.

Comment by Document on xkcd on the AI box experiment · 2014-11-21T20:57:24.473Z · LW · GW

RationalWiki explains this in the way that you should act as if it is you that is being simulated and who possibly faces punishment. This is very close to what the LessWrong Wiki says, phrased in a language that people with a larger inferential distance can understand.

I'm pretty sure that I understand what the quoted text says (apart from the random sentence fragment), and what you're subsequently claiming that it says. I just don't see how the two relate, beyond that both involve simulations.

This is like a robber walking up to you and explaining that you could take into account that he could shoot you if you don't give him your money.

From your own source, immediately following the bolded sentence:

But of course, if you're thinking like that, then the CEV-singleton is even more likely to want to punish you [...] It is a concrete example of how falling for the just world fallacy might backfire on a person with respect to existential risk...

I don't completely understand what he's saying (possibly I might if I were to read his previous post); but he's pretty obviously not saying what you say he is. (I'm also not aware of his ever having been employed by SIAI or MIRI.)

(I'd be interested in the perspectives of the 7+ users who upvoted this. I see that it was edited; did it say something different when you upvoted it? Are you just siding with XiXiDu or against EY regardless of details? Or is my brain malfunctioning so badly that what looks like transparent bullshit is actually plausible, convincing or even true?)

Comment by Document on Rationality Quotes September 2014 · 2014-11-21T06:48:18.440Z · LW · GW

I just liked seeing the usually-untouchable hero called out on his completely empty boast of how tirelessly curious and inquiring he was.

Comment by Document on Rationality Quotes September 2014 · 2014-10-11T06:57:53.841Z · LW · GW

"I hate being ignorant. For me, a question unanswered is like a thorn in my side that pains me every time I move until I can pluck it out."

"You have my sympathy."

"Why is that?"

"Because if that is so, you must spend every waking hour in mortal agony, for life is full of unanswerable questions."

-- Eragon and Angela, Brisingr, by the same author

Comment by Document on Open thread, July 21-27, 2014 · 2014-09-11T16:29:36.543Z · LW · GW

The URL contains "commentisfree". Doesn't that mean that it's a user blog rather than an article?

Comment by Document on The 50 Shades of Grey Book Club · 2014-02-19T07:38:36.145Z · LW · GW

Now that the series of posts has been continued and completed in a different thread, you might want to update your link to point here.

Comment by Document on Open thread for December 24-31, 2013 · 2013-12-31T05:03:06.290Z · LW · GW

In addition to what others said, I find that turning the contrast to maximum helps somewhat.

Comment by Document on Open thread for December 9 - 16, 2013 · 2013-12-23T15:05:57.444Z · LW · GW

I'd rather not worry about budget.

Not counting external storage, I'm using about 25 GB of the D620's 38 GB, plus 25 GB (not counting software) on the family desktop PC.

(After ordering the XPS, I realized that it doesn't have a removeable battery, which seems like a longevity issue; but it seems likely that that's standard for devices of its weight class.)

Comment by Document on Open thread for December 9 - 16, 2013 · 2013-12-20T05:52:43.002Z · LW · GW

Update: I've provisionally ordered a Dell XPS 13.

Comment by Document on Open thread for December 9 - 16, 2013 · 2013-12-19T21:29:34.936Z · LW · GW

Thanks for replying. I haven't looked at your link yet, but it seems like there'd be limits to how much shock protection could be fit in an ultrathin laptop, and it'd be hard to find out how good it is for specific models. (And the speed advantage seems like enough reason to want an SSD in any case.)

Comment by Document on Open thread for December 9 - 16, 2013 · 2013-12-17T08:46:37.784Z · LW · GW

Source on SSDs failing sooner? I thought (or assumed) it was the opposite. A quick Google search turns up the headline "SSD Annual Failure Rates Around 1.5%, HDDs About 5%".

Looking further, though, I also see: "An SSD failure typically goes like this: One minute it's working, the next second it's bricked.". The page goes on to say that there's a service that can reliably recover the data from a dead drive, but that seems like a privacy concern (if everything on the drive weren't logged by the NSA to begin with).

On the pro-SSD side, though, I try to keep anything important online or on an external drive anyway (for easier moving between devices). And I really like the idea of a laptop I can casually carry around without worrying about platters and heads.

Thanks for the suggestions; I may try the Reddit link later. (Edit: posted a thread here.)

Comment by Document on Open thread for December 9 - 16, 2013 · 2013-12-17T03:59:42.831Z · LW · GW

I think I want to buy a new laptop computer. Can anyone here provide advice, or suggestions on where to look?

The laptop I want to replace is a Dell Latitude D620. Its main issues are weight, heat production, slowness (though probably in part from software issues), inability to sleep or hibernate (buying and installing a new copy of XP might fix this), lack of an HDMI port, and deteriorated battery life. I briefly tried an Inspiron i14z-4000sLV, but it was still kind of slow, and trying to use Windows 8 without a touchscreen was annoying.

I remember reading that it's unsafe to move or jostle a laptop with a magnetic hard drive while it's running, because of the moving parts. Based on that, it seems like it's best to get one with only a solid-state drive and no magnetic drive. Is that accurate?

I'm somewhat ambivalent about how to trade off power against heat and weight, or against cost of replacement if it's lost or damaged.

(Edit: I eventually ordered a Dell XPS 13.)

Comment by Document on Intellectual insularity and productivity · 2013-09-23T19:31:47.347Z · LW · GW

"Monitoring"? (I'm not actually familiar with the subject.)

Comment by Document on The genie knows, but doesn't care · 2013-09-18T23:30:07.270Z · LW · GW

I don't feel like enumerating examples, but I feel like I usually don't find it convincing (and that it's usually the heroes stalling and the villains helpfully cooperating).

Comment by Document on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 27, chapter 98 · 2013-09-17T16:42:46.947Z · LW · GW

I thought that in MoR there'd been no way to invent new spells since Atlantis; but I haven't read it in a while, so I could be confused.