I find my reaction to this post interesting. It is less “Well, now what?” and more “Yeah… and?”
I attribute this to both to being new and also to the fact that my (fledgling) loyalty is to Less Wrong and not Eliezer or Overcoming Bias. My value assessment for the latter two firmly revolves around things they have already done. When I read this post it confirms that the value I can receive from Eliezer is in the past. Less Wrong is valuable because of something in its future. So, while digging through all of Eliezer’s radio messages, I remember that my primary task is to keep moving forward and learning about the maze I am in. Standing around pondering what Eliezer’s maze must have looked like and appreciating how Eliezer was so smart as to describe this way is only so useful.
This, natually, is both good and bad. The good is that I am some small evidence that Eliezer did find a way to replace himself. The bad is that I may start picking up ideas and running around with them while getting them all wrong. I may be a bad spark of enthusiasm that sees just enough of a promise at the end of a maze to start madly dashing around in circles. The real test is if Less Wrong can succeed as a whole where any one individual may be wrong and hold enough courage to squelch the bad sparks.
In the meantime, I am off to explore my maze with newly opened eyes. If my radio messages do not jive with the Way, feel free to tune me out, vote me down, and I will wander off alone. But for goodness sake, don’t touch the bad spark.
So I say to you now, on behalf of all our causes: Do, whatever you may find worth doing.
(Note) I have been doing minor editing on this comment. Just FYI.
I find my reaction to this post interesting. It is less “Well, now what?” and more “Yeah… and?”
I attribute this to both to being new and also to the fact that my (fledgling) loyalty is to Less Wrong and not Eliezer or Overcoming Bias. My value assessment for the latter two firmly revolves around things they have already done. When I read this post it confirms that the value I can receive from Eliezer is in the past. Less Wrong is valuable because of something in its future. So, while digging through all of Eliezer’s radio messages, I remember that my primary task is to keep moving forward and learning about the maze I am in. Standing around pondering what Eliezer’s maze must have looked like and appreciating how Eliezer was so smart as to describe this way is only so useful.
This, natually, is both good and bad. The good is that I am some small evidence that Eliezer did find a way to replace himself. The bad is that I may start picking up ideas and running around with them while getting them all wrong. I may be a bad spark of enthusiasm that sees just enough of a promise at the end of a maze to start madly dashing around in circles. The real test is if Less Wrong can succeed as a whole where any one individual may be wrong and hold enough courage to squelch the bad sparks.
In the meantime, I am off to explore my maze with newly opened eyes. If my radio messages do not jive with the Way, feel free to tune me out, vote me down, and I will wander off alone. But for goodness sake, don’t touch the bad spark.
(Note) I have been doing minor editing on this comment. Just FYI.