Eliezer Schlomo Yudkowsky / LessWrong

[Bungleboy]

Since it got brought up in the dork enlightenment thread, I thought it was worth a shot to make a thread about the rationalist community.

Imagine r/atheism with all the flaws (incestuous circle-jerking, mindless groupthink, smugness, neckbeards running amok. etc. etc.) cranked up to 11.

It started with LessWrong, a thread started by Elizier Yudkowsky,a creepy high-school washout with absolutely no experience or education in science, philosophy, or pretty much anything other than masturbating to PC specs.

LessWrong was supposed to be a community based around becoming more rational people. But, as the Dunning-Kruger effect has demonstrated time and again, if you get a bunch of people who are pretty sure they're smart together where the real world can't intervene, shit's going to get dumb really fast.

So not long until Big Yud coralled his flock together, he started writing a Harry Potter fanfic that is pretty much Atlas Shrugged for people too dumb to read Atlas Shrugged. (The link goes to a series of reviews of the fanfic, because the fic itself is about as entertaining as circumcising yourself with a belt sander.) The response was circle-jerky and this tribe of so-called rational thinkers became evangelizing using a goddamn Harry Potter fanfic. Despite how obvious this sounds, much of reddit got suckered in, because reddit hasn't met a stupid idea it didn't like.

Then it became a cult.

Yud has this thing called Roko's Basilisk where he thinks an AI in the future might want to punish people who didn't make it exist so in order to prevent a digital copy of yourself from being tortured forever, you have to donate to MIRI, Yud's organization for AI research, which has exactly one person with a computer science degree on board and no peer-reviewed research or any actual coding. If the fate of my AI-soul depends on these people then please just let Skynet blow me up.

Also he believes in the Timeless Decision Theory where future events affect the past. somehow.

And of course he's scared of dying to the point where he labels anyone who accepts death as a "Deathist"(actual word they use) and he believes cryonics and AI research will make immortality happen.

And like most cult leaders, Yud comes across as pretty lulzy when he's speaking to someone other than a cult member.

"Torture is preferable to 50 people getting specks in their eyes."

Yud tends to 'rationally' lose his shit when criticized.

Everything about this little circlejerk is so surreal and funny.

Like how they proudly show off their pony fanfic as a serious work.

 

[melty]

I read these guys from time to time. I quickly stop because they drive me nuts. They all think they're fucking Spock or some shit.
Here's a pretty amusing first hand account of Yudkowski:

This baffles him The sheer incredulity on his face when five motorcycle riders were telling him just how much we understood the risks we take getting on our bikes; and how the physics feel, and just what sort of good/bad rushes we get… priceless. This was before I knew who he was. Lets just say his attitudes toward things was… off (he made a joke about just waiting for ice to spontaneously form; I’m not sure now just how much that wasn’t a joke).

He then tried to convince us (using his version of Baysian reasoning) that motorcycles are irrational. When we told him we knew the risks, and accepted them… it was like he’s discovered the silk hanky he was caressing was a funnel-web.

 

[TowinKarz]

Belief that cryonics holds the key to eternal life is something a LOT of these guys seem to believe.... they also fear death, as in, WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY more than your average person does. It's like they feel they're just too darn IMPORTANT to human society to have to suffer, well, DEATH.

 

[AdmiralPingas]

I'd like to see a sequel to HPMOR entitled Harry Potter and the Chamber of Rationality, in which Harry must use Bayesian reasoning to save all of wizard-dom from Roko's basilisk.

 

[wagglyplacebo]

http://lesswrong.com
LessWrong is a website that is about being as logical as possible. doesn't sound bad at all til you look a little closer. Lesswrong was created by this man:

Eliezer Schlomo Yudkowsky. http://www.yudkowsky.net
He writes hilariously bad Harry potter fanfiction. http://hpmor.com/
And generally looks down on people that actually have gotten a degree unlike himself. lesswrong.com/lw/qa/the_dilemma_science_or_bayes/

Less wrong is Yudowsky's brainchild in the art and application of pretending that you are smarter than you actually are. It's also an attempt to raise money and recruit people for MIRI, or the Machine Intelligence Research Institute(formerly the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence), a group that yudowsky himself runs. http://lesswrong.com/lw/mjx/miris_approach/

LessWrong believes in the idea that "we must look past our biases no matter what" which means there are certain types that tell LW people that Jews, Asians and whites are naturally smarter than other races and they have to listen to it. Here's an example of that: http://lesswrong.com/lw/9kf/ive_had_it_with_those_dark_rumours_about_our/

Now here's my favorite part of Less wrong, The Reactionaries. Reactionaries are a group of nerd fascists who strongly believe in racial supremacy, the failure of democracy, and the strength of traditional values. LW has no idea what to do with these people. They can't say that they are morons because that would mean they had gone through their little logic games and are still incredibly wrong, they can't just ignore them because they make the site look bad. Here is the sister site the reactionaries created and of course it's called MoreRight.
http://www.moreright.net/
They also like to talk about AI going crazy and killing us all, most famously the saga of the robot devil:
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Roko's_basilisk

 

[DrJonesHat]

I love these guys! I've never seen someone put so much effort into something and still be completely, utterly wrong. They have very little idea about what they're talking about (they think strong AI is just around the corner, when it's decades away, if it's even possible) and Yudkowsky has a cult of personality around himself that he denies he encourages. For fun, tell them cryonics doesn't work and that the many-worlds hypothesis hasn't been verified through experimentation. That reallllllly pisses them off. AI, cryonics, and multiple universes are pretty much articles of faith there, and they don't take kindly to people questioning them, which is kinda odd for people who claim to embrace logic.

I posted there years ago, but got banned because I kept pointing out AI research isn't nearly as far along as they all think.

 

[He Sets Me On Fire]

Eliezer Schlomo Yudkowsky.

Heh, that's funny. Seriously though, what's his real name?

 

[UnwiseKhan]

Heh, that's funny. Seriously though, what's his real name?

Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky

 

[Philosophy Zombie]

Eliezer Schlomo Yudkowsky. He writes hilariously bad Harry potter fanfiction. http://hpmor.com/

The fic is called "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality". Basically it's just like Harry Potter except Harry is Eliezer's self-insert, uncle Vernon is a scientist, and he's an 11-year-old genius who waltzes around being a pretentious rationalist faggot to everyone he meets. (I mean, that's what it sounds like to me.)

The idea seems really boring, but apparently the fanfic is very popular, particularly among euphoric atheists.

 

[Keerakh]

Lol I've been waiting for these guys. I remember reading about Roko's Basilisk and how they all flipped their shit. For all their apparent intelligence they didn't understand how bad the reasoning was.

The fic is called "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality". Basically it's just like Harry Potter except Harry is Eliezer's self-insert, uncle Vernon is a scientist, and he's an 11-year-old genius who waltzes around being a pretentious rationalist faggot to everyone he meets. (I mean, that's what it sounds like to me.)

The idea seems really boring, but for some reason the fanfic is very popular, especially among euphoric atheists.

Yeah, I mean the concept might have some interesting implications in potter Fandom but honestly don't wizards actually attempt to understand magic in it?

 

[AnOminous]

Lol I've been waiting for these guys. I remember reading about Roko's Basilisk and how they all flipped their shit. For all their apparent intelligence they didn't understand how bad the reasoning was.

Yudkowsky himself became so triggered by the whole idea that he banned people left and right over discussing this dangerous idea, because merely discussing it meant that you (and your imaginary alternate selfs in bullshit universes) were now going to suffer and die as punishment for not having helped create the Basilisk.

David Auerbach wrote an article about this laughable, autistic nonsense.

 

[ZehnBoat]

Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky

Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky
that's my name too
whenever i go out
the people always shout
THERE GOES STERILIZER SHLOMO THE HOMO YOUDOUBTSKY

i actually read a few articles by this guy
i can only remember one, and it was the one i actually liked
also although i've never read his fanfic, it sounds stupid as shit.

Yeah, I mean the concept might have some interesting implications in potter Fandom but honestly don't wizards actually attempt to understand magic in it?

not really.
magic in the harry potter universe is just "oh, there's magic"
(tbh, i would love rowling made a story talking about how magic works in harry potter)

Lol I've been waiting for these guys. I remember reading about Roko's Basilisk and how they all flipped their shit. For all their apparent intelligence they didn't understand how bad the reasoning was.

but can roko's basilisk destroy SCP-682?

 

[wagglyplacebo]

Yudkowsky himself became so triggered by the whole idea that he banned people left and right over discussing this dangerous idea, because merely discussing it meant that you (and your imaginary alternate selfs in bullshit universes) were now going to suffer and die as punishment for not having helped create the Basilisk.

David Auerbach wrote an article about this laughable, autistic nonsense.

I love yudkowskis reaction to the basilisk: "Listen to me very closely, you idiot.
YOU DO NOT THINK IN SUFFICIENT DETAIL ABOUT SUPERINTELLIGENCES CONSIDERING WHETHER OR NOT TO BLACKMAIL YOU. THAT IS THE ONLY POSSIBLE THING WHICH GIVES THEM A MOTIVE TO FOLLOW THROUGH ON THE BLACKMAIL.
You have to be really clever to come up with a genuinely dangerous thought. I am disheartened that people can be clever enough to do that and not clever enough to do the obvious thing and KEEP THEIR IDIOT MOUTHS SHUT about it, because it is much more important to sound intelligent when talking to your friends.
This post was STUPID."

 

[Rin]

I probably deserve the autistic ratings for this, but his fanfiction really pisses me off. It's basically him shitting all over J. K. Rowling for not making the main character an overpowered Stu who outwits everyone using his Logic Powers. I only read a couple of chapters, but there's this massive undercurrent of "lol, if only Rowling was as smart as I was, then she would have written the book like this!"

Also, he should probably stop fellating Orson Scott Card, I hear he doesn't approve of homosexuality.

 

[Ruin]

I probably deserve the autistic ratings for this, but his fanfiction really pisses me off. It's basically him shitting all over J. K. Rowling for not making the main character an overpowered Stu who outwits everyone using his Logic Powers. I only read a couple of chapters, but there's this massive undercurrent of "lol, if only Rowling was as smart as I was, then she would have written the book like this!"

Also, he should probably stop fellating Orson Scott Card, I hear he doesn't approve of homosexuality.

Ib4 dumb ratings but other than 100% more smug what I read of it wasn't really all that different from Rowling's uninspired prose.

 

[Keerakh]

Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky
that's my name too
whenever i go out
the people always shout
THERE GOES STERILIZER SHLOMO THE HOMO YOUDOUBTSKY

i actually read a few articles by this guy
i can only remember one, and it was the one i actually liked
also although i've never read his fanfic, it sounds stupid as shit.


not really.
magic in the harry potter universe is just "oh, there's magic"
(tbh, i would love rowling made a story talking about how magic works in harry potter)

honestly I was wondering about it a while ago as to if certain wizards studied the origins and mechanisms of magic. Like the magical version of physicists.

but can roko's basilisk destroy SCP-682?

Lol nope. Roko's basilisk only punishes simulacra of long dead people on the basis of not contributing to hastening it's existence. It's worse than useless.

 

[AnOminous]

He writes hilariously bad Harry potter fanfiction. http://hpmor.com/

Other than Yudkowsky's lack of qualifications to look down on anyone else's education and the general silliness of LW cultism, I think the most lolcow trait is taking fan fiction very, very seriously. In addition to Harry Potter, there's a whole pony fanfiction group on something called the Optimalverse, which is where the human gets uploaded to a virtual universe run by a vast AI called CelestAI.

And this is supposed to be used to somehow convert people to the LessWrong philosophy. There isn't just one of these. There are 65 of them, many novel length. So it's like the notorious fanfic universe The Conversion Bureau, except with VR.

This is just especially laughable in light of the fact that the LW people seem to believe getting people to believe their silly-ass crap is the most important thing in the world, because the Singularity is coming Any Time Now and if people don't believe, then Armageddon won't go right and AI Jesus won't show up.

So how would you convince people of the rightness of your position about life, the universe, and everything? Write Harry Potter and pony fanfics! Surely those will be taken seriously.

Lol nope. Roko's basilisk only punishes simulacra of long dead people on the basis of not contributing to hastening it's existence. It's worse than useless.

Bummer for Imaginary Me, I guess. As for me, I'll live with that.

 

[wagglyplacebo]

This is supposedly how ol' schlomo became a rationalist.

There are so many similarly autistic and weird things like this.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/2/tell_your_rationalist_origin_story/

 

[autisticdragonkin]

I used to and still occasionally read lesswrong
I find some articles such as http://lesswrong.com/lw/5in/the_cognitive_costs_to_doing_things/ to be quite informative
but there still is a large degree of idiocy which is well explained here http://lesswrong.com/lw/18b/reason_as_memetic_immune_disorder/

 

[AdmiralPingas]

I'm prepared to cut the guy some slack because his brother died, but his attitude towards death is... odd. He is literally triggered by descriptions of the afterlife (and songs in fanfics, too). HPMOR comes grinding to a halt in the middle of one chapter, where an ordinary pleasant conversation between Harry and Dumbledore turns into a screaming match about the existence of an afterlife, and it is revealed that Harry has 'jumped to conclusions' about the Hogwarts ghosts and was afterwards really angry when Hermione told him they were just 'afterimages'. Which is all well and good, but would it not be better if, I dunno, Harry had actually been depicted as jumping to these conclusions in the first place? I know the fanfic format doesn't lend itself well to editing, but jeepers, you'd think a great and powerful genius like him would have plotted this thread out a little better. In fact, I don't think the Hogwarts ghosts are even mentioned in the fic until it's time for Harry to start ranting about how they're not really ghosts.

Full disclosure: I enjoy HPMOR, but whoever called it the Atlas Shrugged of fanfics isn't far from the truth. Then again, for some strange reason I actually enjoy reading Atlas Shrugged... I'm hoping one of these days I'll have enough time to brush up on my quantum mechanics and make an informed opinion as to whether the many-worlds interpretation is as manifestly obvious as Yudkowsky says it is. I suspect it isn't, but at least I'll learn something along the way...