In case I wasn’t clear, I see nothing wrong with seeking a personal assistant for Bostrom amongst EAs and LessWrongers. Obviously, many people in those groups might be very interested in the job. I’m sure it will be an interesting opportunity for whoever gets it. My objection was to the tone. I’m glad if people didn’t find it as alarming as I did, but I was aware of some additional controversy, expressed both publicly in the comments and privately. And of course, there is no downvote on Facebook.
I can see how it could come across as ‘hero worship’, except that Bostrom is indeed a widely-recognised world-leading academic at the highest ranked philosophy department in the world. There are sound reasons to be respectful of his work.
Yes, by all means, be respectful of Bostrom’s work! Luckily, there’s a lot of room between “worshipful” and “respectful” to aim at. Lots of hero worship, perhaps even most of it, is directed at people who are legitimately awesome (as I personally believe Bostrom is)! And since LW has alreadybeenaccusedof excessive hero worship, with varying degrees of thoughtfulness, to an extent that has turned people off the site, I think it’s worth considering extolling the virtues of those we admire in a more conventional manner, especially in large public forums.
I completely believe that no innuendo was intended. That’s why I thought it would be helpful to let you know that at least to some people, it came off that way.
In case I wasn’t clear, I see nothing wrong with seeking a personal assistant for Bostrom amongst EAs and LessWrongers. Obviously, many people in those groups might be very interested in the job. I’m sure it will be an interesting opportunity for whoever gets it. My objection was to the tone. I’m glad if people didn’t find it as alarming as I did, but I was aware of some additional controversy, expressed both publicly in the comments and privately. And of course, there is no downvote on Facebook.
Yes, by all means, be respectful of Bostrom’s work! Luckily, there’s a lot of room between “worshipful” and “respectful” to aim at. Lots of hero worship, perhaps even most of it, is directed at people who are legitimately awesome (as I personally believe Bostrom is)! And since LW has already been accused of excessive hero worship, with varying degrees of thoughtfulness, to an extent that has turned people off the site, I think it’s worth considering extolling the virtues of those we admire in a more conventional manner, especially in large public forums.
I completely believe that no innuendo was intended. That’s why I thought it would be helpful to let you know that at least to some people, it came off that way.