I’ve written the existence of a cult-like “Bayesian Conspiracy” of mostly rebellious post-apocalypse teens—and now I’m looking for individuals to populate it with. What I /want/ to do is come up with as many ways that someone who’s part of the LW/HPMOR/Sequences/Yudkowsky-ite/etc memeplex could go wrong, that tend not to happen to members of the regular skeptical community. Someone who’s focused on a Basilisk, someone on Pascal’s Mugging, someone focused on dividing up an infinity of timelines into unequal groups...
Put another way, I’ve been trying to think of the various ways that people outside the memeplex see those inside it as weirdos.
(My narrative goal: For my protagonist to experience trying to be a teacher. I’d be ecstatic if I could have at least one of the cultists be able to teach her a thing or two in return, but since I’ve based her knowledge of the memeplex on mine, that’s kind of tricky to arrange.)
I can’t guarantee that I’ll end up spending more than a couple of sentences on any of this—but I figure that the more ideas I have to try building with, the more likely I will.
The person who uses ev psych to justify their romantic preferences to potential and current partners. (There’s a generalisation of this that I’m not sure how to describe, but I’ve fallen into it when talking with friends about the game-theoretical value of friendship.)
One possible generalization: Being insecure about personal preferences, and so seeking to show that one’s personal likes are rooted directly in something universal — something outside one’s own personal history, culture, subculture, upbringing, etc.
If the problem is that you shouldn’t have to justify your romantic preferences then I can see where you are coming from, but if you do want a justification, what is wrong with evo psych?
I dunno if that’s true, but regardless its a general argument against evo psych, rather than an aguement against using ev psych to justify romantic preferences.
The person who airs fringe supremacist (or even eliminationist) views … then is surprised and offended when members of the targeted groups shun him or her instead of arguing the points as if they were a matter of abstract intellectual interest.
Calculating Bayes rule for everything can be quite weird for a lot of people. I remember a case where someone found it weird that another person asked on LW how to do a Bayesian calculation for the likelihood that a specific girl likes him.
Calculating probabilities for many everyday issues is hugely weird for many people. You might even have to take care to make it sound believable even if you do describe a real world character.
I remember an anecdote of a person doing an utility calculation that suggest having sex without a condom and being exposed to the chance of getting AIDS is quite okay.
Another of those things that CFAR preaches that can be seen as pretty weird is purposeful comfort zone extension. It’s the kind of topic where you also have to worry about believability if you just tell real world stories.
Calculating probabilities for many everyday issues is hugely weird for many people.
And rightly so. The great majority of people are badly calibrated, can’t estimate priors properly, etc. If they tried to calculate probabilities for “many everyday issues” I would bet most of them would land straight in the valley of bad rationality.
I think I have this one covered; my character entry is simply “I wanna be a pony!”.
(And, now that I think about it, my protagonist has said that if they don’t have any other end goals they can think of, they’re going to act as if their end goal is to “read comics”.)
people outside the memeplex see those inside it as weirdos.
When judging how weird a community is, people often approximate a kind of “weirdness Pagerank” by looking at people the community holds in high esteem. I think Yudkowsky can come across as weird and offputting to some folks (not in person, but online. This is a bit of a tangent, but I think it is very interesting to think about the systematic ways our online and offline personas differ and why they do so). If people perceive that, their alarms immediately go off and they conclude folks are brainwashed since they are not seeing the weirdness themselves.
This can add some useful background detail. My protagonist is acting as a pseudo-Yudkowsky to the group, and has already been called the “Mad Queen” at least once.
Put another way, I’ve been trying to think of the various ways that people outside the memeplex see those inside it as weirdos.
The lurker, who may not be gaining as much utility as they would if they participated. However, they still receive the same (or a degree of) connotations from those outside the memeplex, due to their association with the group. These percepts from the outside may be either good or bad.
Seeking LWist Caricatures
I’ve written the existence of a cult-like “Bayesian Conspiracy” of mostly rebellious post-apocalypse teens—and now I’m looking for individuals to populate it with. What I /want/ to do is come up with as many ways that someone who’s part of the LW/HPMOR/Sequences/Yudkowsky-ite/etc memeplex could go wrong, that tend not to happen to members of the regular skeptical community. Someone who’s focused on a Basilisk, someone on Pascal’s Mugging, someone focused on dividing up an infinity of timelines into unequal groups...
Put another way, I’ve been trying to think of the various ways that people outside the memeplex see those inside it as weirdos.
(My narrative goal: For my protagonist to experience trying to be a teacher. I’d be ecstatic if I could have at least one of the cultists be able to teach her a thing or two in return, but since I’ve based her knowledge of the memeplex on mine, that’s kind of tricky to arrange.)
I can’t guarantee that I’ll end up spending more than a couple of sentences on any of this—but I figure that the more ideas I have to try building with, the more likely I will.
(Also asked on Reddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2kopgx/qbst_seeking_lwist_caricatures/ .)
The person who uses ev psych to justify their romantic preferences to potential and current partners. (There’s a generalisation of this that I’m not sure how to describe, but I’ve fallen into it when talking with friends about the game-theoretical value of friendship.)
One possible generalization: Being insecure about personal preferences, and so seeking to show that one’s personal likes are rooted directly in something universal — something outside one’s own personal history, culture, subculture, upbringing, etc.
If the problem is that you shouldn’t have to justify your romantic preferences then I can see where you are coming from, but if you do want a justification, what is wrong with evo psych?
Evo psych tends to be too general and too unproven.
I dunno if that’s true, but regardless its a general argument against evo psych, rather than an aguement against using ev psych to justify romantic preferences.
The person who airs fringe supremacist (or even eliminationist) views … then is surprised and offended when members of the targeted groups shun him or her instead of arguing the points as if they were a matter of abstract intellectual interest.
No, wait, that’s probably not LW-specific enough.
I dunno, it seems to be happening here a disturbingly large amount lately.
Calculating Bayes rule for everything can be quite weird for a lot of people. I remember a case where someone found it weird that another person asked on LW how to do a Bayesian calculation for the likelihood that a specific girl likes him.
Calculating probabilities for many everyday issues is hugely weird for many people. You might even have to take care to make it sound believable even if you do describe a real world character.
I remember an anecdote of a person doing an utility calculation that suggest having sex without a condom and being exposed to the chance of getting AIDS is quite okay.
Another of those things that CFAR preaches that can be seen as pretty weird is purposeful comfort zone extension. It’s the kind of topic where you also have to worry about believability if you just tell real world stories.
And rightly so. The great majority of people are badly calibrated, can’t estimate priors properly, etc. If they tried to calculate probabilities for “many everyday issues” I would bet most of them would land straight in the valley of bad rationality.
Heck, many people here can’t do it right. I’m in particular thinking of the recent thread about computing probability of UFOs or aliens.
Someone who applies useful effective behaviors towards the achievement of a ridiculous or reprehensible end goal.
I think I have this one covered; my character entry is simply “I wanna be a pony!”.
(And, now that I think about it, my protagonist has said that if they don’t have any other end goals they can think of, they’re going to act as if their end goal is to “read comics”.)
When judging how weird a community is, people often approximate a kind of “weirdness Pagerank” by looking at people the community holds in high esteem. I think Yudkowsky can come across as weird and offputting to some folks (not in person, but online. This is a bit of a tangent, but I think it is very interesting to think about the systematic ways our online and offline personas differ and why they do so). If people perceive that, their alarms immediately go off and they conclude folks are brainwashed since they are not seeing the weirdness themselves.
This can add some useful background detail. My protagonist is acting as a pseudo-Yudkowsky to the group, and has already been called the “Mad Queen” at least once.
The lurker, who may not be gaining as much utility as they would if they participated. However, they still receive the same (or a degree of) connotations from those outside the memeplex, due to their association with the group. These percepts from the outside may be either good or bad.