I think the most efficient way to absorb the existing Less Wrong wisdom is to read the articles without comments. Because the comments are easily 10 or more times the amount of text as the articles themselves. It is not a perfect solution: sometimes the best voted comments add something substantial. But I think it is better on average.
Anthropic reasoning is difficult. Small changes in your model of the world can cause dramatic changes in what the distribution of the conscious experience looks like. (Like: Maybe we will never expand to universe or build a Dyson sphere, and soon will consume the fossil resources and the civilization will collapse. Then our life on 21st century Earth is a normal experience. -- But maybe we will colonize the galaxies for billions of years. Then our life on 21st century Earth is astronomically exceptional. -- But maybe the things that will colonize the galaxies are mindless paperclip optimizers. Then our life on 21st century Earth is normal again. -- But maybe… -- But maybe… -- Every new thing you consider can completely change the outcome.)
Thanks for the links—I definitely do focus in on the essential parts when I have limited resources. So I personally don’t need versions without comments, but I find the alternate link for the Sequences quite aesthetically appealing, which is nice.
As for the anthropic reasoning, there are definitely all kinds of different scenarios that can play out, but I would argue that they can be clumped into one of three categories for anthropics. One is doom soon, meaning that everyone dies soon (no more souls). The second is galactic expansion with huge numbers of new conscious entities (many souls). The third is galactic expansion with only the expansion of conscious entities that have existed (same souls). Assuming many-worlds, no more souls is too unlikely to happen in all the worlds, but it will surely happen in some. Same with many souls. But given that we live in the current time period, one can infer that most worlds are same soul worlds.
I think the most efficient way to absorb the existing Less Wrong wisdom is to read the articles without comments. Because the comments are easily 10 or more times the amount of text as the articles themselves. It is not a perfect solution: sometimes the best voted comments add something substantial. But I think it is better on average.
Less Wrong Sequences without comments: https://www.readthesequences.com/
Selected best articles from Less Wrong: https://www.lesswrong.com/bestoflesswrong—but these are links to articles with comments, not sure if there is a better way to read them
Anthropic reasoning is difficult. Small changes in your model of the world can cause dramatic changes in what the distribution of the conscious experience looks like. (Like: Maybe we will never expand to universe or build a Dyson sphere, and soon will consume the fossil resources and the civilization will collapse. Then our life on 21st century Earth is a normal experience. -- But maybe we will colonize the galaxies for billions of years. Then our life on 21st century Earth is astronomically exceptional. -- But maybe the things that will colonize the galaxies are mindless paperclip optimizers. Then our life on 21st century Earth is normal again. -- But maybe… -- But maybe… -- Every new thing you consider can completely change the outcome.)
Thanks for the links—I definitely do focus in on the essential parts when I have limited resources. So I personally don’t need versions without comments, but I find the alternate link for the Sequences quite aesthetically appealing, which is nice.
As for the anthropic reasoning, there are definitely all kinds of different scenarios that can play out, but I would argue that they can be clumped into one of three categories for anthropics. One is doom soon, meaning that everyone dies soon (no more souls). The second is galactic expansion with huge numbers of new conscious entities (many souls). The third is galactic expansion with only the expansion of conscious entities that have existed (same souls). Assuming many-worlds, no more souls is too unlikely to happen in all the worlds, but it will surely happen in some. Same with many souls. But given that we live in the current time period, one can infer that most worlds are same soul worlds.