Aye, not that the general idea “hijack the various stupidities of the human mind to spread raltionality/science” is itself bad, but i think this particular implementation is dubious.
Mostly because science is something anyone can do without the support of a central authority. Having a central authority and secrecy just invites people to betray it for the quick cash that one gets from a tell all memoir. Maybe we could hijack scarcity effects by actively changing the culture. Change the message to something like “Science is really hard, and you Mr.RandomPerson can’t do it. The only people who can do anything of real scientific import are geniuses”. (Yes yes this idea is probably crap) Somehow make science the realm of respectable elites, while turning rationality into something more akin to common sense. (Please don’t make a joke about common sense being uncommon, we’ve all heard it)
Aye, not that the general idea “hijack the various stupidities of the human mind to spread raltionality/science” is itself bad, but i think this particular implementation is dubious.
Exactly. It is an inept attempt to harness a bias—it just wouldn’t work in this instance.
Seems like MoR is working just fine, and that comes closer to the topic. He’s explicitly not arguing here that we should keep science secret.
Maybe he does believe Conspiracy World should exist eventually, but this post by itself seems like extremely weak evidence. Vladimir earlier made an important distinction between the secrecy Eliezer might really practice and that of literal Eighth Level Physicists.
And no, I’m not seriously proposing that we try to reverse the last five hundred years of openness and classify all the science secret. At least, not at the moment.
...I’m telling you about this vision of an alternate Earth, so that you give science equal treatment with cults. So that you don’t undervalue scientific truth when you learn it, just because it doesn’t seem to be protected appropriately to its value. Imagine the robes and masks. Visualize yourself creeping into the vaults and stealing the Lost Knowledge of Newton.
Aye, not that the general idea “hijack the various stupidities of the human mind to spread raltionality/science” is itself bad, but i think this particular implementation is dubious.
Mostly because science is something anyone can do without the support of a central authority. Having a central authority and secrecy just invites people to betray it for the quick cash that one gets from a tell all memoir. Maybe we could hijack scarcity effects by actively changing the culture. Change the message to something like “Science is really hard, and you Mr.RandomPerson can’t do it. The only people who can do anything of real scientific import are geniuses”. (Yes yes this idea is probably crap) Somehow make science the realm of respectable elites, while turning rationality into something more akin to common sense. (Please don’t make a joke about common sense being uncommon, we’ve all heard it)
Exactly. It is an inept attempt to harness a bias—it just wouldn’t work in this instance.
Seems like MoR is working just fine, and that comes closer to the topic. He’s explicitly not arguing here that we should keep science secret.
Maybe he does believe Conspiracy World should exist eventually, but this post by itself seems like extremely weak evidence. Vladimir earlier made an important distinction between the secrecy Eliezer might really practice and that of literal Eighth Level Physicists.
That seems to be an overt attempt at publicity… that’s the opposite of secrecy.
Um, how recently did you read the linked post?
(emphasis in original)
Recently enough that your earlier MoR reference seems equally as flawed now.
...OK, what does the last sentence of the post actually mean? (Shouldn’t “I am great” be the default interpretation? ^_^)