Nitpick: simulacrum is the singular, simulacra the plural. Usually used around these parts in the phrase “simulacrum/a level [1..4]”, a reference to four “stages” in Baudrillard’s theory in which direct attention to reality gradually gives way to something more like other people’s models of other people’s models of other people’s models of reality, so that you say “there is a lion over there” not because there is a lion over there but because you want to align yourself with the people warning about a lion, who in turn are doing so not because there is a lion but because they hope to increase their own social power by making such warnings and being believed, etc.
Nitpick: It’s the Unilateralist who has the Curse, not the Unilaterist.
Nitpick: You have “de gustabus” two times out of three; it should be “de gustibus” each time.
Not-exactly-nitpick: I don’t think it’s right to say that Scott Alexander, in his Meditations on Moloch, asks why systems no one likes persists and finds Ginsberg’s answer of “Moloch” unsatisfying. Surely it’s more that Ginsberg was never trying to answer that question; that Scott asks the question and finds “Moloch” a satisfying answer, provided that he gets to say what he means by “Moloch” which is not necessarily quite the same thing as Ginsberg meant.
Remark: When W.G. was reviewing the previous Less Wrong book set, he remarked that he was glad to have learned the word “hedon” meaning a unit of pleasure (or preference satisfaction or pain removal or whatever). This time around he is glad to have learned “utilon” which means, er, exactly the same thing :-).
Nitpick: simulacrum is the singular, simulacra the plural. Usually used around these parts in the phrase “simulacrum/a level [1..4]”, a reference to four “stages” in Baudrillard’s theory in which direct attention to reality gradually gives way to something more like other people’s models of other people’s models of other people’s models of reality, so that you say “there is a lion over there” not because there is a lion over there but because you want to align yourself with the people warning about a lion, who in turn are doing so not because there is a lion but because they hope to increase their own social power by making such warnings and being believed, etc.
Nitpick: It’s the Unilateralist who has the Curse, not the Unilaterist.
Nitpick: You have “de gustabus” two times out of three; it should be “de gustibus” each time.
Not-exactly-nitpick: I don’t think it’s right to say that Scott Alexander, in his Meditations on Moloch, asks why systems no one likes persists and finds Ginsberg’s answer of “Moloch” unsatisfying. Surely it’s more that Ginsberg was never trying to answer that question; that Scott asks the question and finds “Moloch” a satisfying answer, provided that he gets to say what he means by “Moloch” which is not necessarily quite the same thing as Ginsberg meant.
Remark: When W.G. was reviewing the previous Less Wrong book set, he remarked that he was glad to have learned the word “hedon” meaning a unit of pleasure (or preference satisfaction or pain removal or whatever). This time around he is glad to have learned “utilon” which means, er, exactly the same thing :-).