Wow, is this the general level of the endless Sequences people have
been bugging me for years to read? How the hell is this person
respected by anyone?!
It's an absolute shambles. His ego is absolutely off the charts. Reading the ones about his childhood and intellectual development are peak comedy and it seems clear to me that he is being dishonest, possibly to the point of total fabrication.
It would probably make an interesting psychological study. It reflects very poorly on Sisskind, a trained psychiatrist, that he has fallen in with this guy and evidently still holds him in reasonably high regard.
Tangentically, there is a new post on lesswrong in which Sisskind and Yud are talking about AGI, and if you skim the discussion and click the proffered links scattered throughout you really start to see the cult superstructure unfold. Every link is self referential, either linking to one or the other of their blogs, not one that I could see referred to an external source of any kind. They operate entirely within a paradigm of their own creation seemingly insulated from anything resembling scientific consensus by numerous layers of rambling blog posts all authored by themselves or their own 'in group'.
Rationalists must be some of the most gullible people on the planet.
>It reflects very poorly on Sisskind, a trained psychiatrist, that he has fallen in with this guy and evidently still holds him in reasonably high regard.
First of all, Scott Siskind started reading Eliezer Yudkowsky years before he became a psychiatrist.
Second of all, you say "a trained psychiatrist" as if that means something. Medical doctors can say and do all kinds of crazy things, and psychiatry in particular has not historically been the branch of medicine with the best track record, as far as permeability to stupid or harmful ideas is concerned.
What is original isn't good and what is good isn't original.
If the whole enterprise was just a cliff notes of serious works I could respect the aim even if I wouldn't trust Yud to actually do it properly. The problem is how he bastardizes other works to fit his framework and frequently doesn't reference or even credit his less than original ideas to their originators, so at once he is misinterpreting much of what he presents and at the same time blinkering his readership. Unless of course you run in his circles then you at least get name dropped.
There are people who enjoy hearing their own voice. Yudkowsky is the
kind of person who enjoys reading his own literary ejaculations. And
he’s actually proud of this shit too.
I have a friend who likes FSN (but hates Yudkowski, for what it's worth), and I want to send him a screenshot of Yuskowski saying that to dunk on him. Could you point me in the direction of that quote, if it's not too much trouble?
Nice reminder that all it takes to start a weird cult is if you make
Dipshit Internet Posts using nerd-coded language. This is thoroughly
horrid. There is no “there” there re: yud’s insight into anything
Someone likened him to the comic book guy from the simpsons and it's a near perfect comparison.
I don't know what scenario is more telling, that he and his friend actually engaged in a discussion about his friend's peculiar sex fantasy apparently in a manner serious enough that his friend took the conversation away and ruminated in it for two years. (also it took two years and significant personal growth to realise that maybe an infinity, no matter how it is spent, is not a desirable time frame for human existence? sheeeesh. You don't even need to think for yourself to come to that conclusion it's such a prevalent trope, particularly in science fiction.)
Or the situation in which Yud fabricated this whole story and decided that it made him look good.
The parts of the sequences where he talks about his intellectual development all read like they were written by a teenager with a gigantic hard on for his own perceived intelligence.
I can easily imagine the friend making jokes that fly over EY's head. The first bit sounds like the friend was thinking of *Office Space.* "Laurence, what would you do if you had a million dollars?" "I'll tell you what I'd do: two chicks at the same time."
A motivational speaker at my rural-ass highschool read the whole damn school one of those Athiest Professor chain emails as gospel truth, lol. As part of a veteran's day speech. More than a decade and a half later, I'm still fucking baffled about the whole incident.
just making a dumb joke re: the obviously spurious copypasta
the "atheist professor" / "and then everyone clapped" / "it's true, i was the _____" / "and that man was Albert Einstein" meme family, and all.
This made me think of those Larry Niven books with the alien cat
species where the males are sapient and the females aren’t. I’m sure
that’s wank material for many a LessWronger
The notion of creating sentient beings to staff a volcano lair, gets
us into a whole ’nother class of objections
I don’t want to read the “objections” link… But I am kind of curious
what the problem with sentient catspeople is.
Obviously if you create them with the intent to use them as slaves or
servants, that’s not ok. But that is kind of jumping to conclusions in
terms of their origin story.
Wow, is this the general level of the endless Sequences people have been bugging me for years to read? How the hell is this person respected by anyone?!
I forgot the fictional version of this one! Failed Utopia #4-2. You too can have sex with GPT-1000!
another day volunteering at the MIT AI lab museum. everyone keeps asking me if they can fuck ELIZA. buddy, they wont even let me fuck her.
I remain confused how this man is seen as he is.
There are people who enjoy hearing their own voice. Yudkowsky is the kind of person who enjoys reading his own literary ejaculations. And he’s actually proud of this shit too.
Nice reminder that all it takes to start a weird cult is if you make Dipshit Internet Posts using nerd-coded language. This is thoroughly horrid. There is no “there” there re: yud’s insight into anything
”
Don’t worry, the story has a happy ending. A couple of years later, the same friend came back and said:
“Okay, I’ve gotten a bit more mature now—it’s a long story, actually—and now I realize I wouldn’t want to do that.”
”
No he didn’t say that. That didn’t happen.
I stick to the point that Yudkoswki writes nothing more than Atheist Professor chain-e-mails
A person: Living with catgirls sounds fun.
Yud: Not only is your fantasy wrong, but you’re trying to do multiplayer wrong.
Person: What?
Yud: For you see, catgirls aren’t sentient…
Dude just be redefining things to make points about questions nobody was asking.
This made me think of those Larry Niven books with the alien cat species where the males are sapient and the females aren’t. I’m sure that’s wank material for many a LessWronger
I don’t want to read the “objections” link… But I am kind of curious what the problem with sentient catspeople is.
Obviously if you create them with the intent to use them as slaves or servants, that’s not ok. But that is kind of jumping to conclusions in terms of their origin story.