Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

[Kai]

Reading back, yes, the whole zombies sequence is lulzworthy. To think, there are actually people out there that believe it is possible to have beings that are on every level atomically identical to us, yet not conscious. Intuitively I know it is bullshit, but obviously there are some people that don't get it. 

[Jasper]

Inspired by that one, I called a friend of mine (who is not an intellectual) and explained Chalmers' hard problem to him.  Turns out he couldn't understand how anyone could make that mistake.  I even made sure to explain it as if I believed it, and he still saw the problem.

[Kai]

The best part of the whole thing was:

"Show us your qualia." "I don't have any." "Who are you?" "I'm Daniel Denett, bitches."

"There is a spoon."

[Jasper]

That was genius. 

[Cain]

"There is a spoon" was a genius line.

The truly sad thing is I can really imagine Daniel Dennett crouched over with a bloodied katana in his hands, whispering it to himself.

[Kai]

"There is a spoon" was a genius line.

The truly sad thing is I can really imagine Daniel Dennett crouched over with a bloodied katana in his hands, whispering it to himself.

It would be relatively simple for someone to write a short comics of the script as laid out, including that scene.

[Jasper]

Anyone else read Yudkowsky's Three Worlds Collide?


I'm into it now, and...

"There was a threshold crossed somewhere," said the Confessor, "without a single apocalypse to mark it.  Fewer wars.  Less starvation.  Better technology.  The economy kept growing.  People had more resource to spare for charity, and the altruists had fewer and fewer causes to choose from.  They came even to me, in my time, and rescued me.  Earth cleaned itself up, and whenever something threatened to go drastically wrong again, the whole attention of the planet turned in that direction and took care of it.  Humanity finally got its act together."

...



Sigh. 

[Cain]

I started it, but then remembered I had to actually finish off transferring his Sequences to my word file (nearly 900 pages now, on the final major sequence, but I still need to go through and add as many of the images as possible and a couple of the minor sequences I skipped before PDFing it) and actually read it, so I can start using Bayesian reasoning on the topic of IR and rule the world optimize the international system.

[Kai]

I read it, Sig. It was very Yudowsky.

[Jasper]

Which ending do you prefer?

I honestly can't decide. 

[Kai]

Which ending do you prefer?

I honestly can't decide. 

Not the one where we blow up a planet because we don't like the idea of giving up most forms of pain.

Humans are irrational suckers, through and through.

[Jasper]

Well-

I know, intellectually, that the "mutual assimilation" ending was the better outcome.  But I also have trouble accepting it for how alien it is.  The Lord Pilot is a very sympathetic character for me, and I can see myself doing as he did.  And it would please a certain destructive, primitive part of me to blow up a star.

But if I were in a position to decide without sentimentality, I'd choose the assimilation.  I'd have trouble deciding it for everyone, though.

The ethical problem for me is, what right do I have destroying the human conception of personhood, in favor of one I only understand slightly?

If I could, I would prefer to undergo the change myself, then decide whether to recommend it to others.  I would do so while best trying to anticipate that the new form would bias me just as much if not more toward it.

[LMNO]

A new chapter is up.  Unfortunate Implications abound.  Plus, an interesting take on not caring what other people think.

[Jasper]

Apparently he plans to update again this week.

I love how Ron has been completely thrown under the bus since day one.

[Cain]

Actually compared to some fics, this isn't too bad (see the "Ron the Death-Eater" trope on TV Tropes for more on that).