I think it is time to think critically about LW’s “politics is the mind-killer” meme. As interesting as it is to discuss free will and AI metaethics (no sarcasm, I do think they’re interesting), there are two main things for which LW really, genuinely has the potential to be quite useful: (1) instrumental rationality as applied to daily life (what job to take, what to invest in, personal ethics); (2) political issues.
Refusing to talk about the latter is missing out on a lot of low-hanging fruit.
Also, for what it’s worth, all of these ARE instances of The Worst Argument. Yvain never implied that e.g., anti-abortion people are necessarily driven only by TWAITW, only that that particular argument “abortion is murder” is in fact TWAITW.
I think it is time to think critically about LW’s “politics is the mind-killer” meme. As interesting as it is to discuss free will and AI metaethics (no sarcasm, I do think they’re interesting), there are two main things for which LW really, genuinely has the potential to be quite useful: (1) instrumental rationality as applied to daily life (what job to take, what to invest in, personal ethics); (2) political issues.
Refusing to talk about the latter is missing out on a lot of low-hanging fruit.
Also, for what it’s worth, all of these ARE instances of The Worst Argument. Yvain never implied that e.g., anti-abortion people are necessarily driven only by TWAITW, only that that particular argument “abortion is murder” is in fact TWAITW.