PrometheanFaun

Karma: 96

PrometheanFaun 9 Apr 2012 22:05 UTC
22 points
in reply to: Vladimir_M’s comment on: Schelling fences on slippery slopes
You may be correct, but the speaker in that case was probably referencing the Italian Hall Disaster, a genuine precedent. A rationalist can’t just chose to ignore a data point like just because they don’t like the way it’s normally used.

PrometheanFaun 11 Oct 2013 22:10 UTC
14 points
in reply to: Error’s comment on: How to Become a 1000 Year Old Vampire

is Noticing Boredom a recognized mental skill? Because it should be

Very much agreed. When I started taking online courses I was surprised at how speeding up the video helped my learning. What was happening before, and what still happens when I’m watching slow, informationally dilute speeches, is my mind can’t sync up with the presentation and it wanders off on its own way so frequently that I simply can’t stop it from happening. I also didn’t used to realize how hanging around with crowds who wern’t curious and wern’t agenty in the same way I was sucked the life out of me. I thought I was just an inattentive, generally disengaged person. I was dead wrong.
What links here?
- Error's comment on Open Thread for January 17 − 23 2014 by niceguyanon (20 Jan 2014 20:22 UTC; 6 points)

PrometheanFaun 17 Aug 2013 6:59 UTC
9 points
in reply to: Madbadger’s comment on: The Strangest Thing An AI Could Tell You

It is possible to perceive this, but most people who do just end up labeled as nuts

ONE—DOES NOT EXIST, EXCEPT IN DEATH STATE. ONE IS A DEMONIC RELIGIOUS LIE.

Only your comprehending the Divinity of Cubic Creation will your soul be saved from your created hell on Earth—induced by your ignoring the existing 4 corner harmonic simultaneous 4 Days rotating in a single cycle of the Earth sphere.

T I M E C U B E

PrometheanFaun 20 Oct 2013 8:14 UTC
6 points
in reply to: thomblake’s comment on: The Strangest Thing An AI Could Tell You
Lesswrong’s threads have defeated Death.

PrometheanFaun 12 Aug 2013 2:37 UTC
5 points
in reply to: michael_vassar3’s comment on: Bayesian Judo
He probably didn’t see it as an argument proper, but a long misunderstanding. Most people arn’t mentally equipped to make high fidelity translations between qualia and words in either direction[superficially, they are Not Articulate. More key, they might be Not Articulable], when you dismantle their words, it doesn’t mean much to them, cause you havn’t touched their true thoughts or anything that represents them.

PrometheanFaun 2 Jun 2013 4:44 UTC
5 points
in reply to: Viliam_Bur’s comment on: Post ridiculous munchkin ideas!
It’s worth noting that the results of this poll could be skewed by the fact that it’s much easier to for students to give an answer.

PrometheanFaun 9 Apr 2012 21:23 UTC
5 points
in reply to: zephyrianr’s comment on: Fictional Bias

and I don’t think anybody names real drugs after fictional ones.

A terrible ‘marijuana substitute’ is broadly marketed under the name “spice”. [ D:< How dare they! ]

PrometheanFaun 20 Oct 2013 8:54 UTC
3 points
in reply to: David_Gerard’s comment on: The Strangest Thing An AI Could Tell You
I come from the future with a refutation from the past! http://lesswrong.com/lw/8gv/the_curse_of_identity/

PrometheanFaun 6 Sep 2013 2:53 UTC
3 points
in reply to: Tuxedage’s comment on: I attempted the AI Box Experiment again! (And won—Twice!)
I sincerely hope that happens. I don’t care whether I’m involved, but there must be a group of apt judges who’re able to look over the entirety of these results, discuss them, and speak for them.

PrometheanFaun 18 Aug 2013 6:15 UTC
3 points
in reply to: Said Achmiz’s comment on: Humans are utility monsters
In more personal terms, if you fit your utility function to your friends and decide what is best for them based on that, rather than letting them to their own alien utility functions and helping them to get what they really want rather than what you think they should want, you are not a good friend. I say this because if the function you’re pushing prohibits me from fulfilling my goals, I will avoid the fuck out of you. I will lie about my intentions. I will not trust you. It doesn’t matter if your heart’s in the right place.

PrometheanFaun 5 Aug 2013 1:27 UTC
3 points
in reply to: BlindIdiotPoster’s comment on: Open thread, July 29-August 4, 2013

but for some reason explicit discussion and debate is discouraged

The reason is an assumption that if we discuss those topics, rationality will leave the building. Since rationality is what we’re here for, we must not discuss those topics. Maybe one day we’ll be ready to discuss those topics, but I don’t think we are at this point.

PrometheanFaun 2 Jun 2013 11:21 UTC
3 points
in reply to: ArisKatsaris’s comment on: Rationality Quotes May 2013
However, equivalences are also the bread and butter of inference. Distinguishing more than you need to will slow you down.

PrometheanFaun 26 Oct 2013 3:55 UTC
2 points
in reply to: katydee’s comment on: Better Rationality Through Lucid Dreaming
Great answer, I know this is something I need to do more in life anyway. So I did a little bit of it just now. Sudden increase in levels of curiosity[so virtuous. Wow.]. I’m so curious I even want to know crap like why my housemate sometimes leaves a spoon stuck in the coffee grounds of the compost container. Obviously they used the spoon to move the grounds in there, but why did they leave it stuck there rather than moving it to the cutlery dip in the wash basin? Now that is an extraordinarily minor detail- take that as an indication of just how motivating it is to suspect that you don’t look closely enough at the details of your life to know whether you’re in a shoddy simulation.

PrometheanFaun 20 Oct 2013 8:59 UTC
2 points
in reply to: DSimon’s comment on: The Strangest Thing An AI Could Tell You
I tell everyone this all the time. Thankyou AGI, maybe now they’ll believe me.

PrometheanFaun 20 Oct 2013 1:29 UTC
2 points
in reply to: FourFire’s comment on: How to Become a 1000 Year Old Vampire
Howdy FourFire. At some point after conceiving of a particularly lofty particularly involving plot[details available on request for LWers], I stopped trying to befriend people who wouldn’t feature anywhere in it. Whoever I’m with, there’s always an objective, though I’ll often have to pretend there isn’t and come at it sideways, which only makes it more fun.

For me there are two kinds of people, people I can do something with, and people I’ve got nothing to do with.

PrometheanFaun 17 Oct 2013 4:27 UTC
2 points
in reply to: satt’s comment on: The curse of identity
OK, that’s got to be a bug..

PrometheanFaun 5 Sep 2013 22:41 UTC
2 points
in reply to: EternalStargazer’s comment on: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 27, chapter 98
I think he’s never going to do that here. He did that in TWC because if we were able to come up with the winning strategy when pressed, that would indicate that one of the crew members in the story definitely would have, too, proving it would have been unreasonable to write an ending where they did not. In this case our ability to solve the puzzle doesn’t really say anything about the plausibility of the work’s characters’ solving it. Our success would not necessitate theirs, as we’re more populous, experienced, and have access to a huge written record. Nor would our failure necessitate theirs, as Harry has magical insights. The groups’ capacities say little about each other.

PrometheanFaun 11 Aug 2013 4:43 UTC
2 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Open thread, July 29-August 4, 2013
Oh, hey. Is this the lecture hall for Utopic Fascism Deprogramming 101? Cool, d’you mind if I sit next to you? I’m really excited about this class. We might have to drop it though, I hear that the lecturer might not even be planning on showing up.

PrometheanFaun 1 Jun 2012 1:11 UTC
2 points
in reply to: Grognor’s comment on: [LINK] Why You Should Keep Your Goals Secret
Ah. So roughly like this: If you can convince people in advance that you can do it, and you find it satisfying for people to think you can do it, you’ve achieved half of your goals already and therefore have less cause to actually finish the project.

In this model, the effect will be less pronounced when the anouncer doesn’t believe that the anouncees really see them as being bound to complete the project. This could be achieved in two ways; the anouncer hears them doubt, or imagines that they doubt. Give open doubt to naive dreamers to help them to avoid this trap.

PrometheanFaun 1 Aug 2014 22:33 UTC
1 point
in reply to: Alsadius’s comment on: Jokes Thread
That’s contrary to my experience of epistimology. It’s just a word, define it however you want, but in both epistemic logic and pragmatics-stripped conventional usage, possibility is nothing more than a lack of disproof.