I have a small question, and this is an abstract question not specifically about any particular controversy on LW: -Suppose there is a statement that happens to be true, but which will also lower someone’s or a group’s status resulting in offence. Will you chose not to offend and keep the statement to yourself, or will you say it?
kess3r
Under which circumstances would ‘saying true things’ win and under which other circumstances ‘not saying anything’ would win? I would also add, under which circumstances would you ‘say something you believe to be false’ or ‘agree with something you believe to be false’ in order to avoid offense?
What about “everything that can be destroyed by the truth should be”? There might be an inconsistency between saying maximally true things and not offending people. What is the priority on LW?
On a somewhat related note, I can see it already. You spend years carefully programming your AI, calculating it’s friendliness, making sure it is perfectly bayesian and perfectly honest. You are finally done. You turn it on and the first line it prints: Oh dear, you are quite ugly.
I have another question: Would statements of the type made by Lawernce Summers* be considered too offensive for LW or is discussion allowed?
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Summers#Differences_between_the_sexes
Indeed, people can be offensive accidentally and/or ignorantly. And yet, people can also be offensive while seeking truth. The offensive thing might not even be true, but to reach a conclusion either way, the offensive thing must be entertained as a hypothesis.
What if there was a hypothetical situation where the goal of seeking truth and the goal of not offending were at odds with each other such that one had to chose one or the other? Which goal is more important, truth seeking or non offense?
People have hinted that it depends on the situation. Pretend I’m an alien and and I know nothing of our society. How would you explain this to me? What algorithm is used to decide when it’s ok and when it’s not ok to offend? And on a related note, why is it ok to offend certain groups but not ok to offend other groups? Eg. It’s ok to offend religious people but not ok to offend …
“You may offend people who do or believe foolish things” How does one determine which acts and beliefs are foolish?
“Of course, there are some situations where the need not to offend an off-limits person or group must take the backseat to some greater need.” What are these situations? Who are the off limits people? What is the greater need?
I’m not asking to annoy, I really want to know. I don’t get it. Please explain.
Hmmm. I can see a difference between religion and gender / race etc. So is the rule: “It’s ok to offend a group if individuals have the option of belonging or not belonging to that group, but if individuals don’t have such a choice, then it’s not ok to offend them.”?
I don’t like this rule. I don’t like rules that restrict truth seeking. I think this amounts to modern day heresy.
By heresy I mean preemptively denouncing an idea because it doesn’t adhere to some doctrine with no regard to whether the idea is true or false.
What I want to know is if any of them are black.
Hey, could someone explain the logic of vegetarianism to me? I get the part where vegeterianism is supposedly healthier. But I don’t get the part about not wanting to eat animals because they get killed. I mean, it’s not like cows would live happily ever after if nobody ate them. If all humans suddenly stopped eating cows, there would be no reason to raise cows anymore apart from zoos, and cows are not very good at taking care of themselves in the wild. It seems like vegeterianism would lead to cow extinction or very close to it.
So does that mean vegetarians are ok with eating animals that were treated very humanly or that died of natural causes? Could a vegetarian here explain?
In case there are no vegetarians on this site, how are we driving away or failing to attract vegetarians?
What’s ‘bad’?
Do you think it is unethical for humans to eat other animals? If so, what do you suggest?
What’s ‘useful’? What’s ‘purpose’?
I am trying to make a point. One cannot infinitely regress one’s explanations. At some point one starts engaging the brains’ basic machinery. Avoiding pain is a drive coming from our basic machinery. It is possible to explain how humans evolved pain. But it is pointless to ask for justification for wanting to avoid pain.
Incidentally, English is not my first language.
But if people ate less bacon it would diminish the population of cows. It would hurt cows.
Hey, I very much agree with your explanation. Jonathan Haidt has a very good theory on what makes humans feel this “ick”. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html Don’t be turned off by his implication that liberals should be more conservative. Strictly as an empirical model, his theory is quite good.
Could I get step by step instructions on how to more active in real-land instead of head-land?