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Massad Ayoob, one of the most prolific firearm instructors, said that if you have to defend yourself using a gun, you should hope your attacker survives. Because if your attacker dies, a prosecutor can invent a plausible-sounding story as to how your attacker wasn't posing any real threat, and your "self defense" was actually murder. But if the attacker survives, he can be subpoenaed to testify. And most criminals are bad at testifying.
Kyle Rittenhouse may have been saved by Gaige Grosskreutz's disastrous testimony.
Idk I'm a doomer and I haven't been able to handle it well at all. If I were told "You have cancer, you're expected to live 5-10 more years", I'd at least have a few comforts
- I'd know that I would be missed, by my family at least, for a few years.
- I'd know that, to some extent, my "work would live on" in the form of good deeds I've done, people I've impacted through effective altruism.
- I'd have the comfort of knowing that even I'd been dead for centuries I could still "live on" in the sense that other humans (and indeed, many nonhuman) would share brain design with me, and have drives for food, companionship, empathy, curiosity ect. A super AI by contrast, is just so alien and cold that I can't consider it my brainspace cousin.
- If I were to share my cancer diagnosis with normies, I would get sympathy. But there are very few "safe spaces" where I can share my fear of UFAI risk without getting looked at funny.
The closest community I've found are the environmentalist doomers, and although I don't actually think the environment is close to collapse, I do find it somewhat cathartic to read other people's accounts of being sad that world is going to die.
Don't worry, as soon as AGI goes live we'll all have a peaceful, eternal rest.
Prompt: "Consider a new variant of chess, in which each pawn can move up to six squares forward on its first move, instead of being limited to one or two squares. All other rules remain intact. Explain how game balance and strategy is changed with this new variant of chess."
Successful responses might include:
- The number of moves available in the early game increases, improving white's edge over black.
- Drawing your knight out from 1st to 3rd rank becomes more dangerous, as black can immediately threaten the knight by moving a pawn forward three spaces. The knight declines in importance.
- An untouched pawn with an empty file ahead of it can immediately advance to the end of the board an promote itself to queen. Players will be wary to leave their home rank undefended.
- It's easier to create a diagonal line of pawns. The early game becomes more aggressive.
Now as far as I can tell, no one has ever played "pawn goes unlimited spaces" chess. It's possible that if a metagame developed around PGUS chess, these predictions would prove wrong. But I'd still rate these responses as successful, since they share something not immediately obvious about PGUS chess and provide a plausible justification for why they might be true. Some responses that would not succeed would be
- The pawns become more powerful. (Too simple, close to a tautology.)
- New strategies will need to be developed. (Too vague.)
- Bishops become more valuable. (Needs a justification for why we should expect this.)
I'd put 70% odds that GPT4 is unable to give successful answers to this prompt, and 90% odds that no AI in the next two years will be able beat a human at PGUS chess without having trained on PGUS chess beforehand. (Training on regular chess is acceptable).
I'm a nurse in an at risk area. Should I shave my long hair like the Chinese nurses were doing?
Is it worth it to learn a second language for the cognitive benefits? I've seen a few puff pieces about how a second language can help your brain, but how solid is the research?
I want to have more focus and find it easier to do boring things.
I think I have ADHD. What should I do now?
Could you breed crickets at home?
You said you use this for ROT13ing things. How does that work? Suppose I wanted to make a Facebook post that gave my friends the option of knowing Obama is a werewolf, but also gave them the option for them not to know this if they'd rather be surprised later.
You understood my question better than I did. Thank you.
Is the following paragraph correct?:
If I had unlimited computing power, I could search for all the inputs that return 37ecb0a3164e6422bedc0f8db82e45ec from the MD5 function. Then I could search those inputs and see which ones are meaningful sentences in English, and then make an educated guess at what the message is. But in reality, it would take too much computing power to find even a single string that returns 37ecb0a3164e6422bedc0f8db82e45ec.
How do I make a hash? In case I'm using the wrong word, I want to encrypt a message, then put the encrypted message in a public place, then decrypt the message in a way that proves that I actually encrypted a message (I didn't just write a nonsense string and later retcon an encryption scheme that makes it meaningful).
Saving this so I can read it after it gets deleted.
If wages are too high, causing unemployment, might it be better for employers to get more advantages while hiring?
Is there any way to block distracting software on my computer? There are a blue million apps that will block websites, but I can't find any that will stop me from playing games I've installed. Ideally, I'd like some software that lets me play my games, but only after a 10 minute wait. But I'd settle for anything now that can restrict my access to games without uninstalling them entirely.
How smart do you have to be in order to follow this advice? Are we talking two standard deviations or five?
Is there a Chrome extension or something that will adjust displayed prices of online merchants to take into account rewards benefits? For example, if my credit card has 1% cashback, the extension could reduce the displayed price to be 1% cheaper.
So I signed up for a password manager, and even got a complex password. But how do I remember the password? It's a random combination of upper and lower case letters plus numbers. I suppose I could use space repition software to memorize it, but wouldn't that be insecure?
Longshot, but are there any transgender people here who have signed up for cryonics?
How do you deal with people who are dominating conversations? I had a New Years party and it was basically 4 hours where either this one guy was talking or someone was talking to him.
So just to be clear: If I say "I won't give into the basalisk because Eliezer says I shouldn't", will that protect me from the basilisk? If not, what should I do?
I don't think that's what caused my angst, I think I was worried about becoming less special because more people were reading my favorite blog.
How do I stop being a hipster? I saw Bryan Caplan advising his readers to read Scott Alexander and my first reaction was "Oh no, a well-known blog is recommending people read my favorite little blog. Now more people will read it and I won't be as special." I know this feeling is irrational, but how can I overcome it?
Thank you, how many hours a week do you spend doing these things?
What chores do I need to learn how to do in order to keep a clean house?
I'm having trans issues and would like to talk a trans person who has some experience coming out. Send me a PM if you can talk. Thanks.
The quantified risks of gay sex post is in the early stages of development. If you are a mod and think such a post would have negative value, pianoforte611 and I would appreciate hearing your concerns before we invest our time in it. If you are not a mod but want to make some pre-emptive suggestions, those are welcome too.
Are you still using Zim Wiki?
That comic is unfair. Being called a blasphemer or a ratfink is not the same as getting bashed on the head with a cross. Now the artist would argue that this is a metaphor, but in that case, wouldn't breaking a cross also be metaphorical assault?
Meta: I've submitted four proposals, and might submit more later. I don't have time to write all these posts and I have no idea what posts people would want to read, so I'd appreciate advice, criticism, or requests.
Fixed, thanks.
A lot of websites use a "This is not medical advice" disclaimer, enough to justify a generic template.
Proposal: Don't fear GATTACA. A post where I explain why people are afraid of the dystopia featured in GATTACA, and why these fears are unjustified.
Proposal: You don't need politics. In which I argue that keeping up with the news and political controversies is not a duty nor effective altruism. Intended to counteract the "Rah political activism!" message I got in school.
Proposal: Quantified risks of gay sex: As a bi-curious man, I have some interest in gay sex, but I'm also worried about STDs. As a nerd, I'd like to weight my subjective desire to have gay sex against the objective risks of stds. This has been surprisingly difficult.
The risks of lesbian sex doesn't need quantification because it's basically zero. The risks of straight sex have been decently-enough quantified here and here. But there's no comparable guide for gay sex.
All of the websites for gay men give vague advice like "wearing a condom is safer than not wearing a condom." Sure, but does wearing a condom make gay sex safe enough to rationally partake in, or is it like wearing a seatbelt while you're drunk driving? I'd like to write a post that told men how risky gay sex was and how much of that risk can be avoided. It would help men decide not just whether they should have gay sex, but whether they should get circumcised or insist their partners be tested.
This post could be a hazard if it exposes Less Wrong to legal risk, or if it says something boneheaded and damages the forum's credibility. So I'd probably need some help researching and editing it and I'd want to show it to whoever is in charge of these forums before I post it.
Proposal: If you're depressed, maybe your life sucks. A meta-contrarian post where I argue that you can't always "have a positive attitude" towards bad things in your life, and that fixing your life's problems might be a better strategy than learning to cope with them.
This writing style has become a cliche:
Imagine a hypothetical situation X. In situation X, you would surely agree that we ought to do Y. Surprise! We actually are living in hypothetical situation X. So we obliged to do Y.
Are there any ways to make it less obnoxious?
The United States green card lottery is one of the best lotteries in the world. The payoff is huge (green cards would probably sell for six figures if they were on the market), the cost of entry is minimal ($0 and 30 minutes) and the odds of winning are low, but not astronomically low. If you meet the eligibility criterion and are even a little interested in moving to America, you should enter the lottery this October.
I was considering the Shangri-La diet, but now I'm nervous.
Because of how excited I got when I received gifts in the past. For example , I cherish an expensive scarf a girlfriend gave me even though I would never have bought it for more than a few dollars myself.
I'm currently single so the question is hypothetical.
How would I tell my girlfriend that gifts my love language love language without looking like I'm exploiting her for free stuff.
Despite his nickname, Gothgirl420666 is a cis male. Update his level of credibility on gender issues accordingly.
I've practiced the virtue of silence. I can't say much more than that without breaking the virtue.
We know it's possible because we've seen evolution do it.
I'm requesting advice.
I would like to talk a LWer for advice about romantic relationships. PM me if interested.
PSA: Sign up for Medfusion (or your region's equivalent) if your doctor offers it.
Yesterday I asked my doctor's nurse a question electronically. I had a symptom and I was unsure if it required a visit to the practice. The nurse responded the next day saying the symptom was benign and would go away. This saved me a copayment and a trip outside.
Yes, I'm still angry with him. He did something cruel to someone weak, and he got angry with me for saying that was wrong. I wish I could delete him from my life but he works near me.
Has anyone else had this happen to them?
- You got into an argument with a coworker (or someone else you see regularly). You had a bitter falling out.
- You were required to be around them again (maybe due to work, or whatever). You make awkward small-talk but it's still clear you hate each other.
- You continue to make awkward small talk anyway, pretending that it doesn't make you uncomfortable.
- Your enemy reciprocates. The two of you begin to climb the intimate conversations ladder.
- Both of you act like friends. But, at least from your end, it's not clear if you really are friends. Neither one of you has apologized, nor have you agreed to disagree, or really made any commitment to end hostility. You have no idea whether your enemy has moved on from your fight, and is ready to resume friendship; or if they're simply carrying on a charade of friendship like you.
- Conversations with this person become really awkward, as you're not sure whether to engage the "enemy-with-whom-I-treat-like-a-friend-just-to-act-civilized" protocol or the "real friend" protocol.
Any advice? Am I the only one that's experienced this?