The problem with setting up such a society is that it’s about as secure as a house of cards. If I was a potential attacker, all I’d need to do would be,
Create a new account on Less Wrong (or just use my existing one if I was willing to burn it)
Act really open-minded and gain a lot of karma
Join the Contrarian Conspiracy
Archive all its messages for a few months, then publish them on Slashdot, 4chan, and the National Enquirer
In fact, the first three steps aren’t even necessary, if you assume that instead of being an outside attacker, I’m an internal member who’d gone rogue. There doesn’t seem to be any mechanism in place for stopping a person like that.
Possible solutions: wear cloaks and masks, i.e. have the membership of the mailing list be composed of anonymized gmail accounts (46233782482@gmail.com). Also, of course, denydenydeny.
One also could create a social norm of writing under false identities. That is, have several individuals who are each claiming the same Lesswrong identity.
The needed barriers to entry are basically taken care of in who gets invited in the first place. On the list itself I don’t actually see that strong a reason to even know which mail address is who, in fact since many people don’t really have all that recognisable a style this might work to improve rationality by breaking up existing sympathies and antipathies.
I saw it as a way of messing up the apparent signal-to-noise ratio for outside observers. However, if one were to wish to do so, there are probably better ways.
This is a good idea, but it does not guarantee security; and I’m not sure how effective it would be against a determined attacker. It would be relatively easy to collect a large enough corpus of text and then use it to match up “46233782482@gmail.com″ with “Bugmaster of LessWrong”. And, of course, this assumes that Google won’t roll over and surrender all of Mr. 46233782482′s contact information to the authorities when said authorities come knocking.
How determined an attacker are we planning for, here? The original goal was to just meliorate the damage that a theoretical rogue member could cause (as it seems hopeless to try to prevent that). Are you really anticipating “the authorities” getting involved?
Well, on the one hand, Vladimir_M believes that his beliefs are so heretical that they can cause society—any society, if I understand him correctly—to turn against him in a really intense way. On the other hand, our authorities have been getting quite jumpy lately; for example, merely having an Arabic-sounding last name is already enough for the FBI to attach a tracking device to your car. When you put the two factors together, it seems reasonable to expect said authorities to take an interest in the membership of the Contrarian Conspiracy.
Well, on the one hand, Vladimir_M believes that his beliefs are so heretical that they can cause society—any society, if I understand him correctly—to turn against him in a really intense way.
Where on Earth did you read anything like that anywhere in my comments? Please provide a citation. (Which you should be able to do if you assert it as a known fact that person X believes Y.)
This, by the way, is another way in which expressing opinions about controversial and charged topics can be more dangerous than one might assume. Already in the second- or third-hand retelling, your opinion is not at all unlikely to be distorted and amplified into a caricatured soundbite that sounds far more crude and awful than anything you ever meant to say or actually said. If such things happen even on the “meta” level, what can one expect to happen when concrete topics are broached?
Please provide a citation. (Which you should be able to do if you assert it as a known fact that person X believes Y.)
Ok, I tried doing just that right now, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of the thread at all at any capacity. So, firstly, I have to withdraw my comment for lack of evidence; my apologies. But secondly, can you offer some advice for navigating gigantic threads on Less Wrong ? For example, is there a way to search just a single thread for comments with certain keywords, or to flatten the thread, or something ?
Well, on the one hand, Vladimir_M believes that his beliefs are so heretical that they can cause society—any society, if I understand him correctly—to turn against him in a really intense way.
Such a belief does not exist! Vladimir_M is a liar. A dirty, dirty liar!
Now I’m wondering if there there are any mythical creatures who are known to cause anyone who sets eyes upon them to attack them. It doesn’t seem like a survival trait exactly, unless it is intended to force the assailant into a particularly dangerous form of confrontation.
Now I’m wondering if there there are any mythical creatures who are known to cause anyone who sets eyes upon them to attack them. It doesn’t seem like a survival trait exactly
It could also work as a curse of the gods that keeps the poor soul forever hiding in fear for its life.
The first thing that comes to mind is a bit of a stretch, but:
10 The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
(From Genesis 4.)
So, the curse doesn’t directly cause anyone to attack him, but it does indirectly create a situation in which Cain has to expose himself to attackers. Of course, this version of the curse lasts for all of one verse; in the next, God revises it into the Mark of Cain, which is perhaps even more cruel than the original curse.
“Contrarian Conspiracy for Correcting Politics”
“New Association for Apolitically Criticizing Politics”
“New Society for Discussing, Apolitically, Politics”
The problem with setting up such a society is that it’s about as secure as a house of cards. If I was a potential attacker, all I’d need to do would be,
Create a new account on Less Wrong (or just use my existing one if I was willing to burn it)
Act really open-minded and gain a lot of karma
Join the Contrarian Conspiracy
Archive all its messages for a few months, then publish them on Slashdot, 4chan, and the National Enquirer
In fact, the first three steps aren’t even necessary, if you assume that instead of being an outside attacker, I’m an internal member who’d gone rogue. There doesn’t seem to be any mechanism in place for stopping a person like that.
Possible solutions: wear cloaks and masks, i.e. have the membership of the mailing list be composed of anonymized gmail accounts (46233782482@gmail.com). Also, of course, denydenydeny.
One also could create a social norm of writing under false identities. That is, have several individuals who are each claiming the same Lesswrong identity.
I don’t see why hypothetical conspiratorial mailing list (HCML) identities and LW identities have to be linked at all, really.
The needed barriers to entry are basically taken care of in who gets invited in the first place. On the list itself I don’t actually see that strong a reason to even know which mail address is who, in fact since many people don’t really have all that recognisable a style this might work to improve rationality by breaking up existing sympathies and antipathies.
I saw it as a way of messing up the apparent signal-to-noise ratio for outside observers. However, if one were to wish to do so, there are probably better ways.
This is a good idea, but it does not guarantee security; and I’m not sure how effective it would be against a determined attacker. It would be relatively easy to collect a large enough corpus of text and then use it to match up “46233782482@gmail.com″ with “Bugmaster of LessWrong”. And, of course, this assumes that Google won’t roll over and surrender all of Mr. 46233782482′s contact information to the authorities when said authorities come knocking.
How determined an attacker are we planning for, here? The original goal was to just meliorate the damage that a theoretical rogue member could cause (as it seems hopeless to try to prevent that). Are you really anticipating “the authorities” getting involved?
Well, on the one hand, Vladimir_M believes that his beliefs are so heretical that they can cause society—any society, if I understand him correctly—to turn against him in a really intense way. On the other hand, our authorities have been getting quite jumpy lately; for example, merely having an Arabic-sounding last name is already enough for the FBI to attach a tracking device to your car. When you put the two factors together, it seems reasonable to expect said authorities to take an interest in the membership of the Contrarian Conspiracy.
Where on Earth did you read anything like that anywhere in my comments? Please provide a citation. (Which you should be able to do if you assert it as a known fact that person X believes Y.)
This, by the way, is another way in which expressing opinions about controversial and charged topics can be more dangerous than one might assume. Already in the second- or third-hand retelling, your opinion is not at all unlikely to be distorted and amplified into a caricatured soundbite that sounds far more crude and awful than anything you ever meant to say or actually said. If such things happen even on the “meta” level, what can one expect to happen when concrete topics are broached?
Ok, I tried doing just that right now, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of the thread at all at any capacity. So, firstly, I have to withdraw my comment for lack of evidence; my apologies. But secondly, can you offer some advice for navigating gigantic threads on Less Wrong ? For example, is there a way to search just a single thread for comments with certain keywords, or to flatten the thread, or something ?
Such a belief does not exist! Vladimir_M is a liar. A dirty, dirty liar!
(Prove me wrong? :P)
There’s no such thing as a hate-speech basilisk! Don’t be sill-
whisperwhisper
RAARGH DIE YOU FOUL HERETIC
Now I’m wondering if there there are any mythical creatures who are known to cause anyone who sets eyes upon them to attack them. It doesn’t seem like a survival trait exactly, unless it is intended to force the assailant into a particularly dangerous form of confrontation.
There’s the Troll, obviously.
If only those were mythological!
Not exactly mythological, but SCP-053 springs to mind.
It could also work as a curse of the gods that keeps the poor soul forever hiding in fear for its life.
Ahh, good idea. That has almost certainly come up in mythology somewhere.
The first thing that comes to mind is a bit of a stretch, but:
(From Genesis 4.)
So, the curse doesn’t directly cause anyone to attack him, but it does indirectly create a situation in which Cain has to expose himself to attackers. Of course, this version of the curse lasts for all of one verse; in the next, God revises it into the Mark of Cain, which is perhaps even more cruel than the original curse.
This would be a mistake analogous to the mind projection fallacy. I do not so understand.
Trivial inconvenience to protect against a trivial danger.
I find the scenario very low probability if high impact.
This might be useful.