Valentine

Karma: 5,188

I’m Michael “Valentine” Smith. Cofounder & senior instructor at CFAR back in the day. I’ve been in the rationalist scene since 2011 but mostly left in late 2018. To the extent that “post-rationalist” means anything, the term should probably apply to me.

You can find my non-LW writing on my Substack. You can also find my social media profiles via my Linktree.

Consider chilling out in 2028

ValentineJun 21, 2025, 5:07 PM

180 points

158 votes

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142 comments13 min readLW link

The hostile telepaths problem

ValentineOct 27, 2024, 3:26 PM

398 points

197 votes

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92 comments15 min readLW link

“Dark Constitution” for constraining some superintelligences

ValentineJan 10, 2024, 4:02 PM

3 points

19 votes

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9 comments1 min readLW link

(www.anarchonomicon.com)

Is being sexy for your homies?

ValentineDec 13, 2023, 8:37 PM

203 points

169 votes

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100 comments14 min readLW link 2 reviews

Sapient Algorithms

ValentineJul 17, 2023, 4:30 PM

86 points

56 votes

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15 comments5 min readLW link

[Question] What are brains?

ValentineJun 10, 2023, 2:46 PM

10 points

15 votes

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22 comments2 min readLW link

Slack matters more than any outcome

ValentineDec 31, 2022, 8:11 PM

164 points

86 votes

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58 comments19 min readLW link 1 review

[Question] Where’s the economic incentive for wokism coming from?

ValentineDec 8, 2022, 11:28 PM

15 points

52 votes

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105 comments1 min readLW link

Here’s the exit.

ValentineNov 21, 2022, 6:07 PM

141 points

343 votes

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184 comments10 min readLW link 5 reviews

[Question] What is an agent in reductionist materialism?

ValentineAug 13, 2022, 3:39 PM

7 points

14 votes

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17 comments1 min readLW link

We’re already in AI takeoff

ValentineMar 8, 2022, 11:09 PM

146 points

178 votes

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118 comments7 min readLW link

Signaling isn’t about signaling, it’s about Goodhart

ValentineJan 6, 2022, 6:49 PM

59 points

51 votes

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31 comments9 min readLW link

[Question] What are sane reasons that Covid data is treated as reliable?

ValentineJan 1, 2022, 6:47 PM

41 points

32 votes

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33 comments2 min readLW link

[Question] Where can one learn deep intuitions about information theory?

ValentineDec 16, 2021, 3:47 PM

72 points

42 votes

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27 comments2 min readLW link

Creating a truly formidable Art

ValentineOct 14, 2021, 4:39 AM

132 points

90 votes

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59 comments23 min readLW link 1 review

Of Two Minds

ValentineMay 17, 2018, 4:34 AM

95 points

82 votes

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12 comments2 min readLW link

Noticing the Taste of Lotus

ValentineApr 27, 2018, 8:05 PM

239 points

179 votes

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81 comments3 min readLW link 3 reviews

Mythic Mode

ValentineFeb 23, 2018, 10:45 PM

69 points

66 votes

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82 comments9 min readLW link

The Intelligent Social Web

ValentineFeb 22, 2018, 6:55 PM

236 points

171 votes

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112 comments12 min readLW link 2 reviews

Kenshō

ValentineJan 20, 2018, 12:12 AM

75 points

138 votes

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299 comments6 min readLW link