Open Bar: Funnier Than White People Practicing Voodoo

[minuspace]

My computer may have just turned into a paperweight...

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

My cousin is pregnant with twins.
MY COUSIN IS PREGNANT WITH TWINS.
TWINS. THAT'S TWO BABY BLANKETS I GET TO CROCHET.

OMG.

I'M GOING TO BE 2ND COUSIN SUU TIMES TWO!

Awww! 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

There seems to be a large marching band in my neighborhood for no apparent reason.

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

There seems to be a large marching band in my neighborhood for no apparent reason.

There's a high school that practices down my street pretty regular.

Also, those people that did the unfortunate performance down on MLK, were talking about putting together a marching band for some spectacle they were wanting to put on.

Also, there's that marching band for a cause group that sometimes march against fluoride.

Also, also, also, it occurs to me that just off the top of my head I was able to name 3 totally plausible explanations for a random marching band in your neighborhood on a Saturday afternoon. That's...unexpected.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

There seems to be a large marching band in my neighborhood for no apparent reason.

There's a high school that practices down my street pretty regular.

Also, those people that did the unfortunate performance down on MLK, were talking about putting together a marching band for some spectacle they were wanting to put on.

Also, there's that marching band for a cause group that sometimes march against fluoride.

Also, also, also, it occurs to me that just off the top of my head I was able to name 3 totally plausible explanations for a random marching band in your neighborhood on a Saturday afternoon. That's...unexpected.

My first thought was 'quinceanera' but I'm not sure why.

[minuspace]

So I was looking for something interesting and was totally nonplussed by the "terrible danger" posed by Roko's Basilisk.  Essentially, it's just a re-wording of Pascal's wager:
                    God exists (G)        God does not exist (¬G)
Belief (B)    +∞ (infinite gain)         −1 (finite loss)
Disbelief (¬B)   −∞ (infinite loss)    +1 (finite gain)

Replace "God exists" with "RB will have existed".

Reverse the wager and replace RB with Flying Spag Monster.

Let go and have fun.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

Tuesday is biopsy and pap day.

Getting all my pants-shitting done now, out of courtesy to the doctor.

I mean, I'm going to get cancer at some point. It's in both sides of my family in really fun ways, right there with insanity, exploding hearts, and alcoholism. Probably something to do with well-water and strip-mining/fracking. >.>

Then again, I'm sure everything is fine. It's just the bad break-up (and ex that won't leave me alone) and working every god damn day and packing up my shit and arranging a move that's making this seem awful, right?

That's totally it.

[Cain]

totally nonplussed by the "terrible danger" posed by Roko's Basilisk

How well do you understand timeless decision theory?

It's a rather critical aspect of why Roko's Basilisk is considered such a dangerous line of thought.  Without that knowledge, it would seem little more than Pascal's Wager.

[minuspace]

totally nonplussed by the "terrible danger" posed by Roko's Basilisk

How well do you understand timeless decision theory?

It's a rather critical aspect of why Roko's Basilisk is considered such a dangerous line of thought.  Without that knowledge, it would seem little more than Pascal's Wager.

Without getting mired by details, the "timelessness" of TDT is here understood as the inevitability of a singularity.  Isomorphically, the existence of god, on the other, left-hand side, is the condition on the possibility of being able to choose in the first place.  Either way, you are subject to the slave-thought of linear causality.  I don't care what box you choose, just don't cut yourself with that blade

[hirley0]

So S. Shirley i practice VAdo
What it details is the old medical method of Bleeding
A method that when i was in high school
i had my reservations about | yeah & VAdo too.
Anyway bleeding
Requires the removal of A scab to let the blood out
THE "removal of A scab to let some blood out"
Requires V, very tricky do. Do you see? Sometimes finger nails work best
other time the don't | So other means R Required

Tuesday is biopsy and pap day.

Getting all my pants-shitting done now, out of courtesy to the doctor.

I mean, I'm going to get cancer at some point. It's in both sides of my family in really fun ways, right there with insanity, exploding hearts, and alcoholism. Probably something to do with well-water and strip-mining/fracking. >.>

Then again, I'm sure everything is fine. It's just the bad break-up (and ex that won't leave me alone) and working every god damn day and packing up my shit and arranging a move that's making this seem awful, right?

That's totally it.

See the next posi'

[Junkenstein]

totally nonplussed by the "terrible danger" posed by Roko's Basilisk

How well do you understand timeless decision theory?

It's a rather critical aspect of why Roko's Basilisk is considered such a dangerous line of thought.  Without that knowledge, it would seem little more than Pascal's Wager.

I hadn't come across TDT or the Basilik prior to this so I've been googling about.

Question - Should I be more critical than I currently am of LW/associated things? 
Reasons for question -
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Roko's_basilisk
(Pretty critical of LW/ EY throughout for what appears to be good reason)
http://lesswrong.com/lw/ds4/article_about_lw_faith_hope_and_singularity/
Last comment in particular(seems substantiated):

The article is obviously embarrassing to E.Y. If he didn't want to see this essay's Google rating improve, it wasn't about some general principle regarding "trolling." That's a pretty pathetic attempt at an excuse. It was something about this article. But what? Everyone thinks it's the "moral" aspect. That may be part of his worry: if so, it suggests that the SIAI/Less Wrong complex has a structure of levels--like say, Scientology--where the behavior of the more "conscious" is hidden from less-conscious followers.

But let me point out a specific revelation, not so prominent in the article but really more important for assessing SIAI and LW.

The messianic Mr. Yudkowsky also helped attract funding from his friend Peter Thiel, an early Facebook investor and noted libertarian billionaire whom Forbes pegs as the 303rd richest person in America. The Thiel Foundation, Mr. Thiel's philanthropic group, has donated at least $1.1 million to SIAI, more than four times its next largest donor. (The nonprofit's Form 990 from 2010 shows assets of $462,470.)

How do more leftwing members of the SIAI establishment feel about building an organization funded by (to realists, read "controlled by") an ultrarightwing billionaire? (It raises questions like is the "politics is mindkiller" trope in place to avoid alienating Mr. Thiel, who would be unimpressed by the anti-libertarianism of a considerable minority on LW.)

E.Y. has built a mystique about himself. Here's this self-schooled prodigy who has somehow managed to build a massive rationalist community and to preside over a half-million dollar nonprofit, living the good life of working only 4 hours per day (per LukeProg) and in that time, performing only tasks he likes to do, while being paid handsomely? It's a success story that's impressive. Even if you don't think E.Y. is a great philosopher, you have to admire him (at least the way Arnold Schwartzeneger once said he admired Hitler). It does the Yudkowsky myth no service to learn that he had the help of a billionaire, who almost singlehandedly funded his operations. If I've puzzled for years about the secret of E.Y. success, now I know it. He has a billionaire friend.

Caveat Unlike many others here, I don't like that there are billionaires. They've made a mockery of American politics, and their whimsical "charitable" support to intellectual factions will make a mockery of American intellectual life.

That funding angle alone is enough to make me seriously question their integrity. I hadn't seen/heard anything about this previously so if it's  an open secret that's fine. I would have just expected them to be somewhat more open about where the cash is coming from if this is the case.

It also makes the HMPOR pleas for a holiday home for a month look really, really bad.

[Junkenstein]

It's not looking better the more I see:
http://betabeat.com/2012/07/singularity-institute-less-wrong-peter-thiel-eliezer-yudkowsky-ray-kurzweil-harry-potter-methods-of-rationality/?show=all

Eden is not his given last name. He and Divia, who was also part of the Less Wrong meetup group, made up a new one at their wedding this year, which was officiated by Mr. Yudkowsky. One source described the couple as the "JFK and Jackie O. of the Singularity," though the comparison would be more apt if Camelot were a hippe commune on the Pacific Coast.
For a time, the Edens lived with Patri Friedman—the grandson of economist Milton Friedman and a friend of Mr. Thiel—and his wife in a co-housing situation that they dubbed Tortuga. (Mr. Thiel has also invested in the Seasteading Institute, Mr. Friedman's attempt to erect a new kind of government atop a bunch of oil rigs in international waters.)
The foursome's adventure was well documented on Shannon Friedman's LiveJournal, although all have since have moved out. After her separation from Mr. Friedman last August, Shannon has been dating Mr. Yudkowsky, though not exclusively. "I am now down to only three boyfriends " she wrote on her blog in March. "They're all very casual. Adam describes my relationship with Eliezer as two eight-year-olds on a playground. We banter and play and hot tub."
Incidentally, Ms. Friedman also offers life-coaching services under the same brand as the Edens.

All the hallmarks of a bullshit scam with a new face.

[minuspace]

TY Junk -  going to check-out the above - I am starting to feel like maybe I didn't really give the problem enough thought (maybe it's because deep down, I'm a belieber )

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Just got home. 4 day weekend was longer than expected, upon return to Boston. Pictures later.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

There seems to be a large marching band in my neighborhood for no apparent reason.

There's a high school that practices down my street pretty regular.

Also, those people that did the unfortunate performance down on MLK, were talking about putting together a marching band for some spectacle they were wanting to put on.

Also, there's that marching band for a cause group that sometimes march against fluoride.

Also, also, also, it occurs to me that just off the top of my head I was able to name 3 totally plausible explanations for a random marching band in your neighborhood on a Saturday afternoon. That's...unexpected.

One of us. One of us.