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Motl's record of being wrong??? Who the hell are you to say? What is wrong with you people? The guy may have some questionable political opinions but he knows more about physics than all LW people combined ever will. What, do you think that being self-proclaimed "sane" group and having read a popular book here and there entitles you to make valid comments on scientific topics? Please note this isn't reaction solely to paper-machine or thomblake or shminux, subset of who may actually have some rigorous physics education and who may or may not be simply wrong. This is a reaction to all of LW who apparently think that being intelligent or rational (putting aside the fact that most of their followers probably aren't) makes them into self-taught science experts. I am posting it here because it is "closest" at the moment but this rant has been triggered by reading some other "science" posts today, most notably the quantum mechanics sequence. Which I am afraid fails terribly as an attempted first course on QM, is blatantly wrong in some parts and reflects that indeed Yudkowsky never had any proper physics education because he fails to understand even basic notions properly. LW movement, happily following this crazy narcissistic maniac, thus demonstrates level of scientific education and culture in its ranks. It's sickening on one part and textbook example of confirmation bias on the other. If you are offended by the words chosen, know that no-one really cares. If you think the words chosen are too strong, it's possible, I just came back from a mathematicians' dinner where excessive, but not opinion changing, amount of wine was served. However, strong or not, you are (somewhere already, elsewhere becoming) a good source of laughs for actual scientists. Finally, if you really have to reply, please don't try to address any of the physics criticism above, the sequences and comments under them have provided me with enough lay-people-trying-to-write-about-physics for a long time. Also, I know it is foolish to write science-LW relations rant here as no-one will read it but I don't care. Let the down-voting commence!
Interesting.