The Monster At The End Of This Book

Odradek

But its about rokos basilisk

Aliroz

Oooh, so you've made Lesswronger repellent!

Good, good.

Hexartes

Realtalk, though: super interesting book because of how it introduces the rather esoteric concept of the fourth wall and the connection of medium to diegesis to a very young audience.

Yarrun XIX

this book kills lesswrongers

Odradek

Kexruct said:

Realtalk, though: super interesting book because of how it introduces the rather esoteric concept of the fourth wall and the connection of medium to diegesis to a very young audience.

Yes

Haven

Didn't The Lesswrong Guy say he had developed a proof against Roko's Basilisk but it only worked if he kept it a secret, or something?

MetaFour

I think The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales had a bigger long-term impact on my appreciation for metafiction, but The Monster at the End of This Book certainly has a place in my heart.

MetaFour

IIRC, Roko's basilisk is supposed to be completely logical and superintelligent. It doesn't torture duplicates of people in the future for shiggles, but for the sole purpose of making people now contribute to its development. As such, if the basilisk knows that no amount of future torture can convince Billyjoejimbob to donate, then the basilisk won't bother torturing him at all, because it's wasted effort. So if the basilisk turns out to be true, then the easiest way to escape it is to not believe in it and not donate to AI development in any way.

Lesswrongers didn't just invent their own version of Pascal's Wager. They invented a backwards version of Pascal's wager where Hell is reserved solely for the True Believers who don't live morally enough.

Salix Babylonika

Roko's Basilisk is a great idea for something in a weird uberdystopian sci-fi story.

Beyond that it has no merit whatsoever unless you really enjoy thinking of ways that a hypothetical god (and it is a god) could screw you.

Odradek

iirc no one really believes in Roko's Basilisk anymore, with the possible exception of Roko.

They still believe you need to give Eliezer money to prevent the robogeddon at the hands of The Robot Devil

Salix Babylonika

at least they're giving it to a man with decent taste in Haruhi fanfic.

Klinotaxis

in a way, isn't it beautiful that a bunch of anti-intellectual nerdasses could reinvent anselm-quality arguments

Salix Babylonika

no! actually it's quite horrifying!

Odradek

Jane said:

at least they're giving it to a man with decent taste in Haruhi fanfic.

By literally convincing charities it's a better use of their money than clean water and mosquito nets for third world countries.

I wish I was making that up

Salix Babylonika

Baldanders said:

Jane said:

at least they're giving it to a man with decent taste in Haruhi fanfic.

By literally convincing charities it's a better use of their money than clean water and mosquito nets for third world countries.

I wish I was making that up

well you see :sets golfball down on tee: if you'd just think about these things logically :hits it with a croquet mallet, it goes flying: you'd see that actually :flops to the ground and does the worm on the golf course: it's all quite sensical

Klinotaxis

i sorta doubt they're a big knock to oxfam

Obā-san

Klinotaxis said:

i sorta doubt they're a big knock to oxfam

Calica

Haven said:

Didn't The Lesswrong Guy say he had developed a proof against Roko's Basilisk but it only worked if he kept it a secret, or something?

i think he said that his final version of "decision theory but with literal time travel" wouldn't have this as a problem

Salix Babylonika

it must be really, really awful to live inside your own head to that degree.

Odradek

Klinotaxis said:

i sorta doubt they're a big knock to oxfam

http://www.vox.com/2015/8/10/9124145/effective-altruism-global-ai

Klinotaxis

this article is about thiel and co being idiots with money, but mostly about actual efforts. GiveWell lists their top four charities as the "Against Malaria Foundation", "Schistosomasis Control Initiative", "Deworm the World Initiative", and "GiveDirectly" which "[distributes] cash to very poor individuals in Kenya and Uganda". They don't list any AI nonsense on their top charity page at all. Thiel is, as they say, a rounding error. It's not like he would give to an actual cause in the first place.

Klinotaxis

Jane said:

it must be really, really awful to live inside your own head to that degree.

it really is

Odradek

Klinotaxis said:

this article is about thiel and co being idiots with money, but mostly about actual efforts. GiveWell lists their top four charities as the "Against Malaria Foundation", "Schistosomasis Control Initiative", "Deworm the World Initiative", and "GiveDirectly" which "[distributes] cash to very poor individuals in Kenya and Uganda". They don't list any AI nonsense on their top charity page at all. Thiel is, as they say, a rounding error. It's not like he would give to an actual cause in the first place.

Okay point

Klinotaxis

laughed at "But those probability values are literally just made up." btw. welcome to bayesianism