In these articles, I believe Less Wrong is approaching extraordinary levels of group think. I had the misfortune of growing up as the child of bona fide cult members, complete with guru. There are many similarities here.
And what is significantly absent is self-awareness of the blatant conceit in believing that some super smart dude can reinvent all thinking all-by-self (don’t deny it, that’s what’s going on). I have been disgusted by articles written by Eleazar which virtually lifted whole swaths of Nietzsche, completely unattributed. There is no way that most of this is original thinking.
And I’ll also point out to all the people with rationality blinders on that if the poor dumb sheeples (as appears to be the general attitude around here) get wind that you’re anywhere close to installing super-awesome robot overlords that you are certain will rule with love and compassion, then we’ll see an uprising which will make the French Revolution look like a love-in.
Really super disgusted. And I don’t even give a shit about Wittgenstein. Though I think rationalists who believe they have found or are close to finding the key to living and thinking non-metaphorically are living in their own very delusional altered reality.
What’s most ironic is that Less Wrong IS mainstream philosophy. Look around peeps, this IS the zeitgeist of the scientific set. Just because universities haven’t caught up with you means Nothing. Get some self-awareness, this is pure and simply an advanced step in the progression of the Enlightenment, although more accurately it’s an advanced step in scientific reason a-la the school of Socrates. Of course you’re different, advanced, but you are a part of that specific genealogy. And this is the damning lack of awareness most present in this mindset. You are children of Enlightenment. (Go ahead, murder your fathers ;)
The analysis of mainstream philosophy is missing some key analytical components. Namely, the big picture: the nature, progression of change at, and priorities of academia overall. The political and social world in which that academic progression took shape. The rationalizations and biases supporting major universities as suppliers of ruling classes, as well as the rationalizations and biases of the academia in working class university, and of course the funding of all of the above, and how those shape thinking. Not exploring this issues is tantamount to not exploring the problem. It’s just hand wringing.
And why this glaring lack? Those are the hard problems. Hard to talk about aren’t they. Hell, all this philosophy debate sparks hundreds of comments, but this is a particularly abstract topic. 10% concrete development, 90% repainting the bike shed.
Here’s my contribution to LW: the Fallacy of the Single Solution (to society’s ills), i.e. AI; i.e. Rationality. Particularly abstract solutions, mind you. A lot of what goes on around here is quite Utilitarian, a point alone which should make people sit back and consider, “do we really have the knowledge and capabilities yet to resolve through advanced AI the serious unresolved problems of Utilitarianism?” I’d say that you’d better be Insanely Sure. The bar for evidence better be high, this is high-risk territory. Or, instead, are the Old Dead Guys who have discussed these problems Not Worth Reading either? “Stick with our dogma peeps, don’t confuse yourselves!”...
..Oh man, when you’re telling people “don’t confuse yourselves with the old literature, you are in really altered reality. Wow. Cults.
Quite strange all the denial. But then again, that’s what group think is all about.
What’s also ironic is that luke, who wrote the post you’re responding to, has recently argued at some length that it’s important to acknowledge the relationships between LW and mainstream philosophy and in particular the places where LW/EY owe debts to mainstream philosophy.
A reasonable man might infer from this that he’s not entirely blinded by groupthink on this particular subject.
Of course, that doesn’t mean all the rest of us aren’t… though we sure do seem to have a lot of internal disagreement for a bona fide cult.
All thinking all-by-himself? No. Great chunks, while being immersed in the culture that resulted from that thinking, sure.
I have been disgusted by articles written by Eleazar which virtually lifted whole swaths of Nietzsche, completely unattributed. There is no way that most of this is original thinking.
For direct influences, Eliezer is quite willing to cite e.g. Feynmann, Dennet, Pearl and Drescher.
I don’t see the connection you see to Nietzsche in particular, merely a bunch of things that are tangential at best. Would you be willing to spell out which bits of his writings are like which bits of Nietzsche? I would strongly guess that anything you identify is not particularly unique to Nietzsche, and similar points had been made both before and after him, and any that did have no antecedents before him leaked out into the broader culture.
It depends on what you mean by this being “original thinking”. Eliezer almost certainly isn’t directly mining 19th century German philosophers for ideas. I doubt he has read much if any Nietzsche and would thus not be able to directly copy Nietzsche. Nonetheless, some ideas of Nietzsche have made their way into modern world view. Ideas are generally dense and interconnected. Starting at one idea of a philosopher and thinking about the implications are going to produce similar new ideas to others the philosopher had.
Yes, one should keep clear that one’s ideas that apparently arise from within are crucially dependent on previous experiences and culture. But that doesn’t extend to a requirement to track down and cite previous articulators of similar ideas. Once an idea is encountered indirectly, it’s free game to build upon. It’s long been recognized that certain ideas arise multiple times apparently independently when the prerequisites take root in a given culture. Newton and Liebniz independently invented calculus, with no direct connection. I’m sure neither could cite any direct influence from prior mathematicians that would directly lead to calculus. But there was still enough commonality in mathematical culture that they developed it at roughly the same time.
In these articles, I believe Less Wrong is approaching extraordinary levels of group think. I had the misfortune of growing up as the child of bona fide cult members, complete with guru. There are many similarities here.
And what is significantly absent is self-awareness of the blatant conceit in believing that some super smart dude can reinvent all thinking all-by-self (don’t deny it, that’s what’s going on). I have been disgusted by articles written by Eleazar which virtually lifted whole swaths of Nietzsche, completely unattributed. There is no way that most of this is original thinking.
And I’ll also point out to all the people with rationality blinders on that if the poor dumb sheeples (as appears to be the general attitude around here) get wind that you’re anywhere close to installing super-awesome robot overlords that you are certain will rule with love and compassion, then we’ll see an uprising which will make the French Revolution look like a love-in.
Really super disgusted. And I don’t even give a shit about Wittgenstein. Though I think rationalists who believe they have found or are close to finding the key to living and thinking non-metaphorically are living in their own very delusional altered reality.
What’s most ironic is that Less Wrong IS mainstream philosophy. Look around peeps, this IS the zeitgeist of the scientific set. Just because universities haven’t caught up with you means Nothing. Get some self-awareness, this is pure and simply an advanced step in the progression of the Enlightenment, although more accurately it’s an advanced step in scientific reason a-la the school of Socrates. Of course you’re different, advanced, but you are a part of that specific genealogy. And this is the damning lack of awareness most present in this mindset. You are children of Enlightenment. (Go ahead, murder your fathers ;)
The analysis of mainstream philosophy is missing some key analytical components. Namely, the big picture: the nature, progression of change at, and priorities of academia overall. The political and social world in which that academic progression took shape. The rationalizations and biases supporting major universities as suppliers of ruling classes, as well as the rationalizations and biases of the academia in working class university, and of course the funding of all of the above, and how those shape thinking. Not exploring this issues is tantamount to not exploring the problem. It’s just hand wringing.
And why this glaring lack? Those are the hard problems. Hard to talk about aren’t they. Hell, all this philosophy debate sparks hundreds of comments, but this is a particularly abstract topic. 10% concrete development, 90% repainting the bike shed.
Here’s my contribution to LW: the Fallacy of the Single Solution (to society’s ills), i.e. AI; i.e. Rationality. Particularly abstract solutions, mind you. A lot of what goes on around here is quite Utilitarian, a point alone which should make people sit back and consider, “do we really have the knowledge and capabilities yet to resolve through advanced AI the serious unresolved problems of Utilitarianism?” I’d say that you’d better be Insanely Sure. The bar for evidence better be high, this is high-risk territory. Or, instead, are the Old Dead Guys who have discussed these problems Not Worth Reading either? “Stick with our dogma peeps, don’t confuse yourselves!”...
..Oh man, when you’re telling people “don’t confuse yourselves with the old literature, you are in really altered reality. Wow. Cults.
Quite strange all the denial. But then again, that’s what group think is all about.
What’s also ironic is that luke, who wrote the post you’re responding to, has recently argued at some length that it’s important to acknowledge the relationships between LW and mainstream philosophy and in particular the places where LW/EY owe debts to mainstream philosophy.
A reasonable man might infer from this that he’s not entirely blinded by groupthink on this particular subject.
Of course, that doesn’t mean all the rest of us aren’t… though we sure do seem to have a lot of internal disagreement for a bona fide cult.
All thinking all-by-himself? No. Great chunks, while being immersed in the culture that resulted from that thinking, sure.
For direct influences, Eliezer is quite willing to cite e.g. Feynmann, Dennet, Pearl and Drescher.
I don’t see the connection you see to Nietzsche in particular, merely a bunch of things that are tangential at best. Would you be willing to spell out which bits of his writings are like which bits of Nietzsche? I would strongly guess that anything you identify is not particularly unique to Nietzsche, and similar points had been made both before and after him, and any that did have no antecedents before him leaked out into the broader culture.
It depends on what you mean by this being “original thinking”. Eliezer almost certainly isn’t directly mining 19th century German philosophers for ideas. I doubt he has read much if any Nietzsche and would thus not be able to directly copy Nietzsche. Nonetheless, some ideas of Nietzsche have made their way into modern world view. Ideas are generally dense and interconnected. Starting at one idea of a philosopher and thinking about the implications are going to produce similar new ideas to others the philosopher had.
Yes, one should keep clear that one’s ideas that apparently arise from within are crucially dependent on previous experiences and culture. But that doesn’t extend to a requirement to track down and cite previous articulators of similar ideas. Once an idea is encountered indirectly, it’s free game to build upon. It’s long been recognized that certain ideas arise multiple times apparently independently when the prerequisites take root in a given culture. Newton and Liebniz independently invented calculus, with no direct connection. I’m sure neither could cite any direct influence from prior mathematicians that would directly lead to calculus. But there was still enough commonality in mathematical culture that they developed it at roughly the same time.