Yay, survey taken!
I loved the Prisoner’s Dilemma at the end, I wonder how that will turn out?
Yay, survey taken!
I loved the Prisoner’s Dilemma at the end, I wonder how that will turn out?
Oh, the irony.
It doesn’t matter that Eliezer defined the word “wrong” in a different way than you. You still understand what he means, there’s no point to redefining “wrong” in this case.
Hi! I was wondering where to start on this website. I started reading the sequence “How to actually change your mind”, but there’s a lot of lingo and stuff I still don’t understand. Is there a sequence here that’s like, Rationality for Beginners, or something? Thanks.
The thing abut reductionists is that they think they’re right.
Therefore, anti-reductionists are wrong.
Which means that anti-reductionists either don’t have all the facts, or are choosing to ignore the facts, or are succumbing to other belief-in-belief-type biases.
When you’re talking about someone you know to be wrong, the kindest thing that you can say about them is that they didn’t have all their facts right.
Hi, I’m Rixie, and I read this fan fic called Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by lesswrong, so I decided to check out Lesswrong.com. It is totally different from what I thought it would be, but it’s interesting and I like it. And right now I’m reading the post below mine, and wow, my comment sounds all shallow now . . .
I read about a study like that, in which Christians prayed for people to recover from cancer. There was barely any difference between the patients that weren’t prayed for, the patients that were prayed for and knee that they were being prayed for, and the patients that didn’t know that they were being prayed for.
Eliezer, I love how you can write passionately and poetically about a topic that many people consider stone cold. It really shows how important this all is to you, and it’s much more fun to read.
I’m so glad that you lived your life the way you did and made the mistakes you did and became the person that you are, because if you didn’t have your background and your skill set I might never have learned about rationality or Bayes’ theorem, or read the best fan fiction there is.
Thank you so much for being you, it makes being us just that much better.
Actually, when I learned these I learned them all at once, with the “older model” tag attached to them, and then I was given a “current model” that I was told that I wouldn’t understand yet, and so we worked with the planetary system thing.
That’s progress?
(You are trying to submit too fast. try again in 711 milliseconds. This website really values accuracy.)
What is 3^^^3? I see it a lot here, why is it special?
Hi everyone!
Well, I’m new-ish here, and this site is really big, so I was wondering where I should start, like, which articles or sequences I should read first?
Thanks!
It’s not just that there’s overwhelming support for their side, it’s that there is only support for their side, and this happens on both sides.
How about everyone here who is at High School age message me, and that will be our group. I feel like we would be able to work better with people who were closer in age.
Of course, once you get older it doesn’t matter as much, I think, but when your education is still in progress, we might have to do more background research.
P.S. I’m 14, and I would say that I’m turning 15 in 2 months but that sounds even more childish than just leaving it at “I’m 14”. In any case, I think I’m capable enough of compiling a list, and what comes after will come after.
And here. Maybe we could start with probability theory, seeing as how that seems to be really central to this site.
When I was very young I was also very curious, but I sated my curiosity by telling myself that I would know it all when I was grown up. It wasn’t my problem to be curious about these things, other people were handling them. Maybe Eliezer’s classmates were thinking that this didn’t really make sense, but they trusted the adults enough to do it anyways. Like how a lit lightbulb turns less mysterious and wonderful when you know that someone else already knows the scientific reason for it. All you need to do is follow the instructions and you’ll get light.
Thank you! Your post helped me finally to understand what it was that I found so dissatisfying with the way I’m being taught chemistry. I’m not sure right now what I can do to remedy this, but thank you for helping me come to the realization.
Oh my gosh but I actually am stunned speechless.
I can’t even begin to express the way I feel right now, Eliezer Yudkowsky, my friend, you are in possesion of a rare and powerful gift!
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!!!
Be totally serious about this! Spread it around the internet! This is such an amazing idea! Next April Fool’s day is going to be the best one ever!
Gosh, I’m so ridiculously excited no one’s even going to take me seriously.
I started letting go of my faith when I realized that there really isn’t much Bayesian evidence for it. Realizing that the majority of the evidence needed to believe something is used just to isolate that something out of all the other possible beliefs finished it off. But I do have one question: If Jesus wasn’t magic, where did the Bible even come from? Lee Strobel “proves” that Jesus died and came back from the dead, but his proofs are based on the Bible. Why was the Bible so widely accepted if there wasn’t anything extra-special about Jesus after all?
It’s not necessarily solely for the purpose of overcoming bias. He’s also telling the truth and letting us see things in a different light.
I think he’s saying that atheists should (to a certain extent) honour him, and Christians should believe that he died forever. I’m not familiar with the other religions, but just because someone believes something now, doesn’t mean that that will never change. Isn’t the whole point of this blog to spread truth around?
I have taken the survey.