UtilityMonster

• UtilityMonster 28 Dec 2021 21:22 UTC

  10 points

  on: Omicron: My Cur­rent Model

  I was wondering if you had updated your thoughts on how much viral loads matter since your April 2020 post on it. I live in a co-living space of over 60 people with poor ventilation. I’m wondering if that means I should worry about getting covid more than the average healthy 30 year old man.

  Also, I wanted to more enthusiastically thank you for your feedback on my fantasy sports poker card game in July. You saved me a lot of time! I decided not to continue doing it.

I Think There­fore Some­one Is Or Was?

• UtilityMonster 25 Apr 2022 5:51 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: Tapatakt’s comment on: I Think There­fore Some­one Is Or Was?

  My epistemic status is extremely low, but I’ll try my best to answer. I’m saying that there was a being that the general human would describe as alive at some point in base reality.

  I think my answer to “do you mean existence in a more real way than a “deterministic cellular automata universe with rules I just created in my head, but which no one has yet simulated?” is no.

  That’s mostly based on my understanding of the term deterministic. I googled it and got “relating to the philosophical doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will.” If so, then I don’t think I’m claiming existence wouldn’t be deterministic. It depends on how will is defined.

  I think of all beings as a machine in some sense, whether it’s biological, a classical/​quantum computer, or something I can’t comprehend. For example, I suspect that my genetics (which may or may not be ultimately be a product of a simulation) lead me to do whatever I do and they respond to the environment. So if I interpret having will as the ability to ignore my genetics to make my own choices, I don’t think I have will.

  I guess at some point my genetics could be modified. But that would happen based on how I or someone else who wants to modify my genes makes choices based on their existing genetics.

  Also, I’m interpreting cellular automata universe as a universe of beings made of biological cells generated by a computer. Is this correct? If so, I am envisioning that whatever is base reality isn’t a classical computer. But I don’t mean to say it has to have been created through a process like the big bang.

• UtilityMonster 26 Apr 2022 3:37 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: Tapatakt’s comment on: I Think There­fore Some­one Is Or Was?

  I’m not confident I’m understanding everything again.

  I can see how a universe could only exist conceptually. I have trouble imagining how base reality would only exist conceptually. So I’m claiming I’m nearly 100% that there’s more of an existence than the concept of base reality.

Maybe I 100% Know Some­thing. But I Prob­a­bly Won’t Be Able To 100% Ex­plain It

Long-term Short-term Happiness

• UtilityMonster 8 May 2022 21:46 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: Razied’s comment on: Long-term Short-term Happiness

  I think there are times I’d prefer calmness to what you describe as happiness or satisfaction. But the calm gives me a positive emotional state.

  Granted, I’ve barely meditated. Maybe you’re using calmness to refer to a feeling that I can’t relate to.

My Morality

• UtilityMonster 16 May 2022 1:43 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: Dave Lindbergh’s comment on: My Morality

  But it’s not literally impossible to achieve both goals. And I think there are practical ways to improve total utility and reduce utility inequality at the same time. For example, anything that helps make a sad being happy.

  As I said, I don’t know how I’d make tradeoffs between total utility and utility inequality yet. If I did know, I would want society’s existing utility to be distributed in a Pareto efficient way.

• UtilityMonster 16 May 2022 2:54 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: Measure’s comment on: My Morality

  I think having a theoretical definition helps me. But I agree that I can’t precisely measure utility in practice.

My Take On Philosophy

• UtilityMonster 24 May 2022 2:27 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: TAG’s comment on: My Take On Philosophy

  I’d think of psychology as a more applied version of neuroscience and the “mind science” I don’t think there’s a name for.

Shar­ing Is Car­ing?

• UtilityMonster 2 Jun 2022 1:06 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: pjeby’s comment on: Shar­ing Is Car­ing?

  I felt that the only lesson I learned was that people I interact with are more politically correct than I realized. And they’ll look for ways to misinterpret a statement I meant literally.

  The above passage was my initial reaction to Jane’s statement. I meant to express that I realized it was reasonable for someone not to take “Hot girls excite me!” as I find some women attractive over the next few paragraphs. I guess I may not have been clear enough.

  Also, I didn’t mean to convey I preferred underage or immature women by using the term girls.

  And in reference to your other comment, I didn’t mean to be impolite by the term girls either. I’ll try to use the term women to refer to adult females in the future.

• UtilityMonster 2 Jun 2022 1:09 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: weft’s comment on: Shar­ing Is Car­ing?

  Thanks for the feedback. I didn’t think the word hot would be interpreted that way.

• UtilityMonster 2 Jun 2022 1:17 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: gjm’s comment on: Shar­ing Is Car­ing?

  Yeah, “Hot girls excite me!” has been interpreted in ways I didn’t intend more often than I expected. I’ve crossed it out on my about page.

  I hadn’t thought about your second point before. It’s possible you’re right. My gut says it could’ve been boredom and/​or loneliness too. I can’t remember how I was feeling on that day.

  As far as I can remember, I haven’t done anything else like searching for the Hungary delegate over the past 4.5 years. And, off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other potential unintended consequences of not masturbating. So for now, I don’t think it’s worth spending more time thinking about it.

Pure Altruism

Have The Effec­tive Altru­ists And Ra­tion­al­ists Brain­washed Me?

Do You Care Whether There Are “Suc­cess­ful” Ra­tion­al­ists?

• UtilityMonster 28 Jun 2022 23:47 UTC

  1 point

  0

  in reply to: Viliam’s comment on: Do You Care Whether There Are “Suc­cess­ful” Ra­tion­al­ists?

  I meant to convey that I was evaluating my trust in the rationalist community, not rationality itself.

  And I concluded that the opinions of really successful people is only a minor factor affecting my trust in the rationalist community.