251–260 of 947 posts
It's amphetamine. All of these people are constantly tweaking. They're annoying people to begin with, but they're all constantly yakked up and won't stop babbling. It's really obvious, I don't know why it isn't highlighted more in all these post Ziz articles.
One of a few issues I have with groups like these, is that they often confidently and aggressively spew a set of beliefs that on their face logically follow from one another, until you realize they are built on a set of axioms that are either entirely untested or outright nonsense. This is common everywhere, but I feel especially pronounced in communities like this. It also involves quite a bit of navel gazing that m…
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Sure, but that doesn't say anything about why one particular social scene would spawn a bunch of cults while others do not, which is the question that the article is trying to answer.
Maybe I was too vague. My argument is that cults need a secret. The secret of the rationalist community is "nobody is rational except for us". Then the rituals would be endless probability/math/logic arguments about sci-fi futures.
In the rationalist cults, you typically have the fear of death and non-existence, coupled with the promise of AGI, the Singularity and immortality, weighed against the AI Apocalypse.
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Her books were very popular with the gifted kids I hung out with in the late 80s. Cool kids would carry around hardback copies of Atlas Shrugged, impressive by the sheer physical size and art deco cover. How did that trend begin?
People reading the book and being into it and telling other people. It’s also a hard book to read so it may be smart kids trying to signal being smart.
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I didn't originally write this, but can't find the original place I read it anymore. I think it makes a lot of sense to repost it here: All of the World Of Darkness and Chronicles Of Darkness games are basically about coming of age/puberty. Like X-Men but for Goth-Nerds instead of Geek-Nerds. In Vampire, your body is going through weird changes and you are starting to develop, physically and/or mentally, while realis…
This tracks, but I'd say Werewolf goes beyond LGBT folks, the violence there also fits the boy's aggressive play and the saving the world theme resonated a lot with the basic "i want to be important/hero" thing. Its my favorite of all world of darkness books, i regret not getting the kickstarter edition :(
One of a few issues I have with groups like these, is that they often confidently and aggressively spew a set of beliefs that on their face logically follow from one another, until you realize they are built on a set of axioms that are either entirely untested or outright nonsense. This is common everywhere, but I feel especially pronounced in communities like this. It also involves quite a bit of navel gazing that m…
There should be an extremist cult of people who are certain only that uncertainty is the only certain thing
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There should be an extremist cult of people who are certain only that uncertainty is the only certain thing
What makes you so certain there isn't? A group that has a deep understanding fnord of uncertainty would probably like to work behind the scenes to achieve their goals.
One of a few issues I have with groups like these, is that they often confidently and aggressively spew a set of beliefs that on their face logically follow from one another, until you realize they are built on a set of axioms that are either entirely untested or outright nonsense. This is common everywhere, but I feel especially pronounced in communities like this. It also involves quite a bit of navel gazing that m…
I don’t think it’s just (or even particularly) bad axioms, I think it’s that people tend to build up “logical” conclusions where they think each step is a watertight necessity that follows inevitably from its antecedents, but actually each step is a little bit leaky, leading to runaway growth in false confidence. Not that non-rationalists are any better at reasoning, but non-rationalists do at least benefit from some…
Non-rationalists are forced to use their physical senses more often because they can't follow the chain of logic as far. This is to their advantage. Empiricism > rationalism.
Thinking too hard about anything will drive you insane but I think the real issue here is that rationalists simply over-estimate both the power of rational thought and their ability to do it. If you think of people who tend to make that kind of mistake you can see how you get a lot of crazy groups. I guess I'm a radical skeptic, secular humanist, utilitarianish sort of guy, but I'm not dumb enough to think throwing a…
People find academic philosophy impenetrable and pretentious, but it has two major advantages over rationalist cargo cults. The first is diffusion of power. Social media is powered by charisma, and while it is certainly true that personality-based cults are nothing new, the internet makes it way easier to form one. Contrast that with academic philosophy. People can have their own little fiefdoms, and there is certain…
Nuh-uh! Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote that his mother made this mistake, so he's made sure to say things in the right order for the reader not to make this mistake. Therefore, true Rationalists™ are immune to this mistake. https://www.readthesequences.com/Knowing-About-Biases-Can-Hu...