Hi, I am Alyssa, a 16-year-old aspiring programmer-and-polymath who found her way to the wiki page for Egan’s Law from the Achron forums. From there I started randomly clicking on links that mostly ended up leading to Eliezer’s posts. I was a bit taken aback by his attitude toward religion, but I had previously seen mention of his AI Box thing (where (a) he struck me as awesome, and (b) he said some things about “intelligence” and “wisdom” that caused me to label him as an ally against all those fools who hated science), and I just loved his writing, so I spent about a week reading his stuff alternately thinking, “Wow, this guy is awesome” and “Poor atheist. Doesn’t he realize that religion and science are compatible?” Eventually, some time after reading Religion’s Claim to be Non-disprovable, I came to my senses. (It is a bit more complicated and embarrassing than that, but you get the idea.)
That was several months ago. I have been lurking not-quite-continuously since then, and it slowly dawned on me just how stupid I had been—and more importantly, how stupid I still am. Reading about stuff like confirmation bias and overconfidence, I gradually became so afraid to trust myself that I became an expert at recognizing flaws in my own reasoning, without being able to recognize truth or flaws in others’ reasoning. In effect, I had artificially removed my ability to consciously classify (non-obvious) statements as true: the same gross abuse of humility I had read about. After a bit of unproductive agonizing over how to figure out a better strategy, I have decided I’m probably too lazy for anything but making samples of my reasoning available for critique by people who are likely to be smarter than me—for example, by participating in discussion on Less Wrong, which in theory is my goal here. So, hi!
(I have been tweaking this for almost an hour and will submit it NOW.)
Now that I think of it I didn’t say it explicitly, but I was. I called myself Catholic, but I had already rejected the Bible (because it was written by humans, of course) and concluded that God so loved His beautiful physics that He would NEVER EVER touch the universe (because I had managed to develop a fondness for science, though for some reason I did not yet accept e.g. materialism).
That’s pretty much Deism, I think. Not right, but not quite as wrong as some other possible approaches.
Welcome! I don’t know much/how systematically you’ve read, but if you’re wondering about what makes something “true”, you’ll want to check out The Simple Truth (short answer: if it corresponds to reality), followed by Making Beliefs Pay Rent and What is Evidence.
Welcome, and please don’t be shy about posting freely. As others have said, it’s impressive that you’re on the ball so young, and it’ll be interesting to see what you share on LW.
I’d say the best thing about noticing that you’ve been stupid is being able to distinctly notice when you’re getting smarter, as it’s happening. I love that feeling.
Hi, I am Alyssa, a 16-year-old aspiring programmer-and-polymath who found her way to the wiki page for Egan’s Law from the Achron forums. From there I started randomly clicking on links that mostly ended up leading to Eliezer’s posts. I was a bit taken aback by his attitude toward religion, but I had previously seen mention of his AI Box thing (where (a) he struck me as awesome, and (b) he said some things about “intelligence” and “wisdom” that caused me to label him as an ally against all those fools who hated science), and I just loved his writing, so I spent about a week reading his stuff alternately thinking, “Wow, this guy is awesome” and “Poor atheist. Doesn’t he realize that religion and science are compatible?” Eventually, some time after reading Religion’s Claim to be Non-disprovable, I came to my senses. (It is a bit more complicated and embarrassing than that, but you get the idea.)
That was several months ago. I have been lurking not-quite-continuously since then, and it slowly dawned on me just how stupid I had been—and more importantly, how stupid I still am. Reading about stuff like confirmation bias and overconfidence, I gradually became so afraid to trust myself that I became an expert at recognizing flaws in my own reasoning, without being able to recognize truth or flaws in others’ reasoning. In effect, I had artificially removed my ability to consciously classify (non-obvious) statements as true: the same gross abuse of humility I had read about. After a bit of unproductive agonizing over how to figure out a better strategy, I have decided I’m probably too lazy for anything but making samples of my reasoning available for critique by people who are likely to be smarter than me—for example, by participating in discussion on Less Wrong, which in theory is my goal here. So, hi! (I have been tweaking this for almost an hour and will submit it NOW.)
Welcome, Alyssa!
Finding out how “stupid” I am is one of the most important things I have ever learned. I hope I never forget it!
Also, congrats on seriously questioning your religion at your age. I didn’t do so until much later.
I’m not sure Alyssa said she was religious!
Now that I think of it I didn’t say it explicitly, but I was. I called myself Catholic, but I had already rejected the Bible (because it was written by humans, of course) and concluded that God so loved His beautiful physics that He would NEVER EVER touch the universe (because I had managed to develop a fondness for science, though for some reason I did not yet accept e.g. materialism).
That’s pretty much Deism, I think. Not right, but not quite as wrong as some other possible approaches.
Welcome! I don’t know much/how systematically you’ve read, but if you’re wondering about what makes something “true”, you’ll want to check out The Simple Truth (short answer: if it corresponds to reality), followed by Making Beliefs Pay Rent and What is Evidence.
But it sounds like you’ve made a very good start.
You should check out the lesswrong for highschoolers facebook page
Welcome!
It can be quite a big hammer to read it all at once. Good luck digging through it all.
You might also like some of the recommended books that are spread all over this site.
Martin
Welcome, and please don’t be shy about posting freely. As others have said, it’s impressive that you’re on the ball so young, and it’ll be interesting to see what you share on LW.
Welcome, fellow aspiring programmer-and-polymath!
I’d say the best thing about noticing that you’ve been stupid is being able to distinctly notice when you’re getting smarter, as it’s happening. I love that feeling.