In that case i’d also recommend checking out music by Voltaire (dont know if you’re familiar with him, i think he’s kinda obscure). I dont think his songs have too much in the way of pure rationality, but he’ll probably overload your Lovecraft sections. the songs are generally morbid and comical and fun to sing along or dance to.
pleeppleep
Karma: 597
Im curious, how would the spilling blood idea work exactly? would everyone cut their fingers on the spot? would it be collected beforehand? and where exactly would we spill it? Down the drain? I’m not criticizing the idea (well, maybe a little) but i just want to know what you have in mind.
when you did the ritual, did you just sing all the songs or did you play music alongside it? Some of them (singularity, for instance) seem sort of like they would need the music to be sung.
Before discovering Less Wrong, i took an unusual view of ambition. I actually managed to use excessive ambition to justify a total lack of ambition. I would deem unachievable goals to be the only goals worth achieving. Since this made it impossible for me to achieve any “valuable” goals, i would be able to accept having no goals as a suitable alternative. As you’ve probably noticed, this is eerily similar to a Mysterious Answer. I never believed in any Spiritual ideals (although i did subscribe to intelligent design due to a misunderstanding of Occam’s Razor). I still am baffled by the lengths i went to to screw myself up in this regard. As you can probably imagine, this idea led to a great deal of depression, lowered self esteem, and worsened relationships with family members. I was seriously considering suicide (i probably wouldn’t have done anything, but the idea was still there). Despite Scoring in the 99th percentile on standardized testing, I was resolved to avoid college.
Upon reading the Sequences and Methods of Rationality, I instantly realized how absurd these ideas were and disposed of them appropriately. Though this bias (which i highly suspect to be related to undervalue of the mundane) does rear its head at times, it is generally under control. In any case, I think i can say with at least 85% certainty that Less Wrong and all it represents have had an amazingly positive effect on my life. Even discounting the incredible boost to mental well being, since finding rationality, my GPA has gone up two letter grades (would be more if not for akrasia), I have begun learning programming, took up an after school project, and resolved to go to college.
i never really had that problem. I usually feel less bored wasting time in my room than working towards something productive. When i do take up a task i always feel relieved when i have an excuse to give up and not worry about it any more. most of my troubles came from the realization that the world would not allow me to live a comfortable life doing nothing.
im only in Junior year and havent actually got accepted anywhere but im planning to study something in the way of computers or science.
I think you were fairly justified in changing the title, but i would think people have good reason to fear an error that could never be corrected. Why else would it be valuable to discern the future ramifications of a decision? Also i should probably note that you could correct this if you wanted to, but have insufficient reason to consider this an error. Again, I think the title change was a good thing, but that last comment felt like it was cheating on a site as devoted to precision in argument as we are. Also, Mitchell_Porter’s overreaction hardly reveals enough about his character to justify a widespread negative effect on society caused by such personalities.
sorry, its been a while since everyone stopped responding to this comment, but these goals wouldnt even begin to cover the number of problems that would be solved if our rough estimates of the capabilities of FAI are correct. You could easily fit another 10 issues to this selection and still be nowhere near a truly just world. not to mention the fact that each goal you add on makes solving such problems less likely due to the amount of social resistance you would encounter. and suppose humans truly are incapable of solving some of these issues under present conditions. this is not at all unlikely and an AI would have a much better shot at finding solutions. The added delay and greater risk may make pursuing FAI less rewarding than any one or even possibly three of these problems, but considering the sheer number of problems human beings face that could be solved through the Singularity if all goes well would lead me to believe it is far more worthwhile than any of these issues.
Lets not forget that the sequences are set up specifically to appeal to a western audience with presumably western ideals. Major alterations would probably need to be made to compensate for the dissonance between cultures. The typical mind fallacy strikes among people with fairly similar upbringing. How much more destructive would it be in the transfer of ideas between a person whose heritage diverged from that of another man 3,000 years ago?
Its rather common for individuals to deal with adversity by blaming a higher power, but i dont think most societies would condone such beliefs. It would probably make things difficult for priests, for one thing, and If God existed beyond a reasonable doubt then anyone with a sense of self preservation would be unlikely to challenge Him. Most People would suck up to Him like they think they’ve been doing for centuries, no matter how much of a prick He was. People tend to only tell God to go fuck Himself when they’re in a troubled emotional state and thing the universe is out to get them anyway. A society is not prone to such fits of emotional turmoil, but individuals decidedly are. Noticing just how unfair nature can be while asserting the existence of a higher power tends to lead to serious depression. Just watch Welcome to the NHK.
I would never have identified as a rationalist had I missed this site. I never had a very strong commitment to the truth, as I am something of a chronic liar. I used to make deliberate attempts to try and manipulate people in ways borderline to the Dark Arts.
I did however desire to have a consistent set of philosophic rules that eventually led me into an existential crises of sorts. I was raised by a deeply conservative (in ideology, but certainly not action) father who is easily the smartest person I know personally at the moment. He was intelligent enough to defend his own biases. I ended up believing in intelligent design argued from an almost logical point of view.
I became an objectivist for a short time, and followed the ideas presented to me to their logical conclusion, giving me my first taste of rationality. unfortunately i then decided to study philosophy and based many of the ideas I developed subsequently on internal reasoning rather than observation. This led me dangerously close to postmodernism (shutter), without realizing it.
I never cared much for science, being raised with moderate distrust of scientists who, i was led to believe, arrived at irrational and convoluted conclusions to promote politically-inspired ideas (proven by the ridiculous borderline pseudoscience the media tends to get a hold of). I also came to possess a highly contrarian attitude and abhorrent social tendencies (i get along fairly well with most people but often demonstrate quirks that lead several people to label me a sociopath. Think of the guy in the hat from XKCD only more realistic).
I came to be a rationalist after reading the chapter in HPMOR in which Harry first conjures a patronus. I had ceased to believed in an afterlife long before, but never considered the idea that death could be stopped. Unlike most people, i noticed that a lifespan of 100 years, being less than nothing in cosmic terms, rendered human life almost insignificant. This ironically led me to lose any value i put in my life and seriously consider suicide.
When i realized that humanity had a fighting chance against death, I regained the will to live and a purpose to strive for, which inevitably led to seeking out any tool that would help. Of course, having gotten the inspiration from Eliezar in the first place, i returned after reading the fic to learn all i can about “what Rational!Harry knows and then some” and discovered the sequences. So it was that I became a rationalist, not out of moral commitment to truth (I developed that later), but out of need for a weapon with which to destroy evil. I learned directly from Eliezar that the strongest weapon man has is the ability to locate truth.
Hi, I’m Josh. I found this site by way of HPMOR more than half a year ago, but just now got around to making an account. I hadn’t seen any reason to until I actually had something to add to a conversation. After registering and leaving a few comments here and there, i figured i may as well introduce myself.
Im 17 years old and trying to narrow down what to do with my life. My long term goal, much like most patrons to this site, is to do as much as i can to aid the development of FAI. Im smarter than the vast majority of people, but i doubt that im anywhere near intelligent enough to add directly to the project, so the issue becomes finding a career that pays enough to allow large donations while also satisfying short term needs and pressures, (most of which are related to serving my ego which is of an astronomical size).
Im generally a slacker due to akrasia, with a C average for my first two years of high school, despite almost straight A’s on exams ( ive raised it to a B average after finding Less Wrong, but im still putting off doing my homework even at this moment).
I spend a good deal of time trying to figure ways to introduce rationality to my friends and relatives, but without much luck. any advice on the issue would be helpful, but i think that question would be more appropriate for an open thread or discussion.
I’m motivated on the most basic level by the fact that something is horribly wrong with the world when it doesn’t have to be. If i could sum up my life in any one purpose it would be ensuring that death is banished from the world never to touch mankind again. This is the same sentiment that led to the creation of this community and i will try to offer as much as i can.
yes, but bias twists the way different people interpret a message. A Buddhist would be unlikely to counter and argument against religion the way a Christian would. Less Wrong is designed to free people of bias in its Western form. The sequences counter memes that are widespread in America but might not be so in Egypt. Im not saying that the ideas cant be spread, i just think you might have to do more than just translating the language if you’re going to appeal to an entirely different audience with different ways of thinking.
how long should it take for someone to reply after you send in a message requesting an invite?
Dementors as everyone but Harry sees them are more or less illusions created by a wizard’s subconscious, but they are not limited to a person’s expectations. They can react to stimulus, possibly in ways similar to organic life, but any displays of sapience are created in the minds of onlookers. As such there is no possible way that dementors could ever relay information to someone not already in possession of the knowledge.
Hagrid was convicted in the canon universe which is noticeably different from the world presented in the fic. Hagrid was convicted at least 35 years before Voldemort started causing trouble and plunging the wizarding world into chaos. Most of all, Hagrid was fortunate enough NOT to piss off Lucius Malfoy. So there’s no reason for that example to be particularly relevant to Hermione’s predicament.
I could be wrong, but i believe its been noted that Harry has a tendency to bypass the rule of three.
Huh, didn’t remember that. Guess you win that one.
His knowledge of the rule’s existence is irrelevant. I don’t think It was meant to be taken as a limiting boundary on all plans, just good advice that Lucius seemed to trust. And his solution isn’t to be merely clever, its to be creative. Harry’s point is that a world where evil goes unchecked is barely worth living in, and so there’s no real room for compromise. With power like magic that can literally rewrite the laws of physics, no situation is ever really unsolvable if you’re creative enough to directly manipulate the rules.
Most of those points were already brought up and ignored. Everyone at the “trial” came in knowing exactly which way to vote, and Harry doesn’t have time to alter their individual opinions. Its pretty clear that if Hermione had never come into contact with Harry, but still wound up in the same situation (inexplicably) things would be very different. Although I do like how you’re idea calls back the opening to the chapter. Also, Harry just talking makes for kinda poor drama. Where getting close to the climax of this section and I’d be pretty surprised if it ended with Harry getting to know the members of the Wizengamot, but i could be wrong.
If i may, i’d like to suggest a song for your next solstice. I dont know whether you’ve ever seen Disney’s Tarzan or not, but I think the song Son of Man by Phil Collins fits right into our way of thinking. I came across it on youtube and couldnt think of anything except how perfectly it fits with some of the more optimistic bits from your ritual.