This is a fictional dialogue demonstrating a meta-level point about how discourse works, and your comment is pretty off-topic. If you want to comment on my AI timelines post, do that (although you haven’t read it so I don’t even know which of my content you’re trying to comment on).
This is a fictional dialogue demonstrating a meta-level point about how discourse works, and your comment is pretty off-topic.
I think that if a given “meta-level point” has obvious ties to existing object-level discussions, then attempting to suppress the object-level points when they’re raised in response is pretty disingenuous. (What I would actually prefer is for the person making the meta-level point to be the same person pointing out the object-level connection, complete with “and here is why I feel this meta-level point is relevant to the object level”. If the original poster doesn’t do that, then it does indeed make comments on the object-level issues seem “off-topic”, a fact which ought to be laid at the feet of the original poster for not making the connection explicit, rather than at the feet of the commenter, who correctly perceived the implications.)
Now, perhaps it’s the case that your post actually had nothing to do with the conversations surrounding EA or whatever. (I find this improbable, but that’s neither here nor there.) If so, then you as a writer ought to have picked a different example, one with fewer resemblances to the ongoing discussion. (The example Jeff gave in his top-level comment, for example, is not only clearer and more effective at conveying your “meta-level point”, but also bears significantly less resemblance to the controversy around EA.) The fact that the example you chose so obviously references existing discussions that multiple commenters pointed it out is evidence that either (a) you intended for that to happen, or (b) you really didn’t put a lot of thought into picking a good example.
I shouldn’t have to argue about the object-level political consequences of 1+4=5 in a post arguing exactly that. This is the analytic synthetic distinction / logical uncertainty / etc.
Yes, I could have picked a better less political example, as recommended in Politics is the Mind Killer. In retrospect, that would have caused less confusion.
Anyway, Evan has the option of commenting on my AI timelines post, open thread, top level post, shortform, etc.
This is a fictional dialogue demonstrating a meta-level point about how discourse works, and your comment is pretty off-topic. If you want to comment on my AI timelines post, do that (although you haven’t read it so I don’t even know which of my content you’re trying to comment on).
I think that if a given “meta-level point” has obvious ties to existing object-level discussions, then attempting to suppress the object-level points when they’re raised in response is pretty disingenuous. (What I would actually prefer is for the person making the meta-level point to be the same person pointing out the object-level connection, complete with “and here is why I feel this meta-level point is relevant to the object level”. If the original poster doesn’t do that, then it does indeed make comments on the object-level issues seem “off-topic”, a fact which ought to be laid at the feet of the original poster for not making the connection explicit, rather than at the feet of the commenter, who correctly perceived the implications.)
Now, perhaps it’s the case that your post actually had nothing to do with the conversations surrounding EA or whatever. (I find this improbable, but that’s neither here nor there.) If so, then you as a writer ought to have picked a different example, one with fewer resemblances to the ongoing discussion. (The example Jeff gave in his top-level comment, for example, is not only clearer and more effective at conveying your “meta-level point”, but also bears significantly less resemblance to the controversy around EA.) The fact that the example you chose so obviously references existing discussions that multiple commenters pointed it out is evidence that either (a) you intended for that to happen, or (b) you really didn’t put a lot of thought into picking a good example.
I shouldn’t have to argue about the object-level political consequences of 1+4=5 in a post arguing exactly that. This is the analytic synthetic distinction / logical uncertainty / etc.
Yes, I could have picked a better less political example, as recommended in Politics is the Mind Killer. In retrospect, that would have caused less confusion.
Anyway, Evan has the option of commenting on my AI timelines post, open thread, top level post, shortform, etc.