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Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

futureofhumanityinstitute.org

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Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#191

Post by arduanika »

exo-pla-net wrote: post #23
Maro wrote: post #11

This 2023 incident around founder Nick Bostrom may have something to do with it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Bostrom#1996_email_contro... From the wikipedia article: > In January 2023, Bostrom issued an apology for a 1996 email where he had stated that he thought "Blacks are more stupid than whites", and where he also used the word "niggers" in a description of how he thought this statement might be perceived…

This is a smear taken out of context. What Bostrom actually had to say is both accurate and mild: > “I have always liked the uncompromisingly objective way of thinking and speaking: the more counterintuitive and repugnant a formulation, the more it appeals to me given that it is logically correct,” the quoted excerpt begins. “Take for example the following sentence: Blacks are more stupid than whites. I like that sen…

The philosopher David Thorstad keeps a blog with critiques of EA and related ideas. His writing strikes me as fairly patient and in good faith. (Or at least, it's more measured than some of my own comments on this thread!)

He wrote this good dissection of the Bostrom email controversy, and why the apology doesn't cut it:

https://ineffectivealtruismblog.com/2023/01/12/off-series-th...

That said -- it did happen way back in the 90's. There has to be a place for forgiveness, even for imperfect people offering imperfect apologies. My sense is that there's plenty of other things to criticize that are more recent and more central to this general school of thought.

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#192

Post by nwiswell »

pfdietz wrote: post #184
robertlagrant wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never heard that in that context. Can you cite an example?

I constantly see the argument "no country has ever been powered by solar and wind", implying that it therefore can't be done, and that one should use nuclear instead (never mind the same is true of nuclear; not even France is fully nuclear powered).

> never mind the same is true of nuclear; not even France is fully nuclear powered

This seems somewhat bad-faith: nuclear does supply the majority of France's power, and since nuclear is a "base load" part of the mix, it would be inefficient to get 100% of power from nuclear rather than a peaking-friendly mix that includes e.g. hydro and gas.

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#193

Post by cool_dude85 »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #173
n4r9 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not saying that I or anyone am perfectly logical or uninfluenced by feeling. Hume was exactly correct when he said the reason is the slave of the passions. But - with his trilemma, Lewis claims "here is a logical argument for believing in the Christian god", and then presents a weak and illogical argument. It's difficult to know what to make of this except that Lewis was somehow blinded to the logical flaws.

What do you think are the logical flaws in the trilemma argument?

It's a false trilemma, as there are othe possibilities: he did not actually exist historically, or he was a wise, nice guy and others made up all the God stuff over the years, or he was a nice guy trying to help people and he thought tactically the mystical claims would allow him to help more people. One can probably imagine a bunch more or less realistic possibilities given a little while to think about it.

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#194

Post by pfdietz »

nwiswell wrote: post #192
pfdietz wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I constantly see the argument "no country has ever been powered by solar and wind", implying that it therefore can't be done, and that one should use nuclear instead (never mind the same is true of nuclear; not even France is fully nuclear powered).

> never mind the same is true of nuclear; not even France is fully nuclear powered This seems somewhat bad-faith: nuclear does supply the majority of France's power, and since nuclear is a "base load" part of the mix, it would be inefficient to get 100% of power from nuclear rather than a peaking-friendly mix that includes e.g. hydro and gas.

Focusing only on the grid is bad faith; if one includes non-grid energy use, France doesn't even get 50% of its energy from nuclear.

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#195

Post by golergka »

malfist wrote: post #130
itronitron wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The additional context you provide suggests that the smear was taken out of context in order to hide the fact that the smear was in fact covering a skid mark over a shit stain.

Yeah, I don't get how that context makes anything better. All it says to me is Bostrom is trying to claim he's not racist because he knows his racist view will get him called a racist and therefor he's not racist. The argument doesn't make sense. You don't get to claim your view that black people are inferior to "mankind" isn't racist just because someone calls you a racist

Depends on how you define racism: is it a descriptive (this is a fact about the world that I consider to be true: this group is smart, that group is not) or perceptive (this is what I want to see in the world: this group should be given privileges, that group should not) view? In the email, his own statement is the former, and his assumed definition of racism clearly only relates to the latter.

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#196

Post by pessimizer »

exo-pla-net wrote: post #23
Maro wrote: post #11

This 2023 incident around founder Nick Bostrom may have something to do with it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Bostrom#1996_email_contro... From the wikipedia article: > In January 2023, Bostrom issued an apology for a 1996 email where he had stated that he thought "Blacks are more stupid than whites", and where he also used the word "niggers" in a description of how he thought this statement might be perceived…

This is a smear taken out of context. What Bostrom actually had to say is both accurate and mild: > “I have always liked the uncompromisingly objective way of thinking and speaking: the more counterintuitive and repugnant a formulation, the more it appeals to me given that it is logically correct,” the quoted excerpt begins. “Take for example the following sentence: Blacks are more stupid than whites. I like that sen…

This context makes it worse. I was imagining a bunch of different framings that would make it sound thoughtful, but I've literally heard the same thing from Klansmen in Arkansas. Literally, not figuratively.

That last sentence is a symptom of people thinking that the only important issue is whether they're good people or not. He's saying that saying dogs are stupider than humans is not the same as hating dogs. Who cares what he hates? The question is who he hires, and who he gives the benefit of the doubt to. Not hiring dogs isn't hating dogs either.

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#198

Post by Lockal »

Good riddance.

A group of scammers without specialized education, theorizing about immortality (from people without medical education), saving humanity (thank you, but humanity thrives without your help), about ethics in artificial intelligence (from people who do not know any programming language), about drug promotion (from professional drug abusers), about pumping money into cryptocurrencies (which they personally purchased) and even crypto exchanges they own (hello SBF).

I hope to see all these people in jail (as I see they have already removed their names from the site).

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#199

Post by s1artibartfast »

throwaway290 wrote: post #83
IncreasePosts wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if these people ever paused to consider they aren't as smart as they think they are, if they're just figuring out some basics of human communication in their mid 20s that my 8 year old has known for years.

The irony is that you are looking at an example where a guy literally paused to consider how he was not so smart about communication. He also shared it with others who can also lack this skill

Sure, I don't think anyone was claiming infallibility.

I think it is easy however to romanticize these such errors made in the pursuit of truth.

It can be like the pointing out the fallibility of Galileo Galilei in thinking he wouldn't be held to the inquisition, and made to recant his evidence of heliocentrism.

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#200

Post by klyrs »

javajosh wrote: post #167

The real question is whether Mr. Beast can make compelling content about saving the Future of Humanity Institute. If so, they're good.

I saw some Mr Beast branded candy bars at the supermarket this week. Pretty sure that's not a future-saving venture, that's just taking advantage of the sugar-addicted kids that form his fanbase.
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