I’d recommend instead you frame it as a recommendation for specific action, not a question about attitude. “you, dear reader, should do Y next week to reduce expected {average, total, median, whatever} future suffering” would go a lot further than asking why they’re not obsessing over the topic.
This would seem to be at odds with “aim to inform, not persuade”. (Is that still a rule? I seem to recall it being a rule, but now I can’t easily find it anywhere…)
It’s never been a rule, more of a recommendation, and it’s more about avoiding “arguments as soldiers” than a literal formation. There are lots of exceptions, and I’d argue that it really should be “aim to learn” more than “aim to inform”, though they’re related.
In any case, obfuscating advocacy in the form of a somewhat rhetorical question seems strictly worse than EITHER informing or persuading. It doesn’t seem like anyone’s trying to answer literally, they’re answering related questions about the implied motivation of getting people to do something about S-risk.
It’s part of the “frontpage comment guidelines” that show up every time you make a comment. They don’t appear on GreaterWrong though, which is why I guess you can’t see them...
This would seem to be at odds with “aim to inform, not persuade”. (Is that still a rule? I seem to recall it being a rule, but now I can’t easily find it anywhere…)
It’s never been a rule, more of a recommendation, and it’s more about avoiding “arguments as soldiers” than a literal formation. There are lots of exceptions, and I’d argue that it really should be “aim to learn” more than “aim to inform”, though they’re related.
In any case, obfuscating advocacy in the form of a somewhat rhetorical question seems strictly worse than EITHER informing or persuading. It doesn’t seem like anyone’s trying to answer literally, they’re answering related questions about the implied motivation of getting people to do something about S-risk.
It’s part of the “frontpage comment guidelines” that show up every time you make a comment. They don’t appear on GreaterWrong though, which is why I guess you can’t see them...