The comment I wrote yesterday was motivated by how Eliezer blithely mocks traditional religion while promoting the cryonicism / life-extensionism / trans-humanism / singularity religion.
The people I know of the cryonicism / life-extensionism / trans-humanism / singularity faith are libertarians, which seems like a non sequtur. What does the apotheosis of Aubrey de Grey have to do with a political philosophy premised on the protection of private property? To be a full-fledged member of the cult maybe you have to adopt both. Similarly there are Republicans that adopt an incoherent party platform that conflates religious fundamentalism with lower income taxes. Would a rational, unbiased person migrate to both beliefs, or does a blend of intellectual dishonesty and imitating the group bring someone there?
A pet peeve of mine that manifested itself in what I wrote is that I’ll visit a left-leaning politics/economics blog and some very smart people will act as if they are holders of Truth regarding the nefariousness of the political Right and the divinity of the political Left. Then I’ll go to a right-leaning blog and those very smart people with similar overconfidence will make diametrically opposed assertions. On this blog that putatively is about overcoming bias I thought it hypocritical that Eliezer mocks all traditional beliefs while then arbitrarily promoting his own “religion.”
Why do we believe what we believe? I think Robin Hanson says you should optimally shade your view towards the crowd wisdom to avoid bias. Does Eliezer have a strong enough basis for his iconoclastic belief in the cryonicism / life-extensionism / trans-humanism / singularity religion? Has he avoided the biases he so very eloquently writes about here? Does this site do for philosophy what Brad DeLong’s site does for political economics where a bunch of likeminded smart people get together and to the point of delusion overconfidently reinforce each others’ worldviews when equally smart people do the same thing with opposite views elsewhere? Who is right, and how is the disagreement reconciled?
The comment I wrote yesterday was motivated by how Eliezer blithely mocks traditional religion while promoting the cryonicism / life-extensionism / trans-humanism / singularity religion.
The people I know of the cryonicism / life-extensionism / trans-humanism / singularity faith are libertarians, which seems like a non sequtur. What does the apotheosis of Aubrey de Grey have to do with a political philosophy premised on the protection of private property? To be a full-fledged member of the cult maybe you have to adopt both. Similarly there are Republicans that adopt an incoherent party platform that conflates religious fundamentalism with lower income taxes. Would a rational, unbiased person migrate to both beliefs, or does a blend of intellectual dishonesty and imitating the group bring someone there?
A pet peeve of mine that manifested itself in what I wrote is that I’ll visit a left-leaning politics/economics blog and some very smart people will act as if they are holders of Truth regarding the nefariousness of the political Right and the divinity of the political Left. Then I’ll go to a right-leaning blog and those very smart people with similar overconfidence will make diametrically opposed assertions. On this blog that putatively is about overcoming bias I thought it hypocritical that Eliezer mocks all traditional beliefs while then arbitrarily promoting his own “religion.”
Why do we believe what we believe? I think Robin Hanson says you should optimally shade your view towards the crowd wisdom to avoid bias. Does Eliezer have a strong enough basis for his iconoclastic belief in the cryonicism / life-extensionism / trans-humanism / singularity religion? Has he avoided the biases he so very eloquently writes about here? Does this site do for philosophy what Brad DeLong’s site does for political economics where a bunch of likeminded smart people get together and to the point of delusion overconfidently reinforce each others’ worldviews when equally smart people do the same thing with opposite views elsewhere? Who is right, and how is the disagreement reconciled?