In general, I thought the recent discussions on seduction were beneath us. First I was put off by the de-personalization of people considered as sexual partners; and then I was equally offended by the undercurrent of “some people don’t deserve (a high level of) sexual gratification, because they’re not attractive enough” running through some of the indignant responses that I should otherwise have agreed with. For all the talk about “altruism” and concern for “humanity” in this community, there wasn’t much of that spirit to be found anywhere in those threads.
Having locker-room discussions in public is low-status behavior. Now it is a debatable question whether we should go out of our way to signal high status. (I for one think the prestige of Overcoming Bias, run as it was by high-status folks like Robin Hanson and associated with no less than Oxford University, contributed in no small part to getting us this far, and is something we are in danger of losing to the extent we become perceived as a group of underachieving sex-starved male computer programmers in their twenties.) But I think most of us should be able to agree that signaling low status is not helpful toward our goals as a community (which after all don’t necessarily include individual members’ getting laid in the short term).
So, yes, this is in fact an argument for a certain kind of political correctness—just enough of it to avoid signaling low status if at all possible. Let me suggest a heuristic: this should in theory be a place where someone like Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett would be comfortable posting. (Speaking of which, why haven’t we seen them here? They share many of our goals and interests.) Now these are folks who definitely aren’t unwilling to call a spade a spade. At the same time I have a feeling they’d be turned off by some of the discussions of “PUA” and the like.
So, yes, this is in fact an argument for a certain kind of political correctness—just enough of it to avoid signaling low status if at all possible.
No no no. Discouraging topics with “low status” connotations (as opposed to topics which are politically divisive or needlessly exclusionary) is cowardly and epistemically dangerous. If we were playing a chronophone game, this would come out as “Let’s not discuss Copernicus’ theories: this should be a place where Jesuit scientists and philosophers can be comfortable”.
Rationalists should win, and one can win big by seeing things that society at large dares not point out just yet.
If we were playing a chronophone game, this would come out as “Let’s not discuss Copernicus’ theories: this should be a place where Jesuit scientists and philosophers can be comfortable”.
Nonsense. It was with the aim of preventing this misunderstanding that I suggested the Dawkins/Dennett test (apparently to no avail). “Low status” doesn’t mean what you seem to think; it’s not the same thing has holding a minority opinion. Galileo’s status was quite high, which is why he was treated as a threat by the church rather than being ignored as a lunatic. A more appropriate chronophone rendering might be: “Let’s make sure we wear our wigs and robes properly and have a Latin version ready to go .”
Finally note that I said “if at all possible”. If for some reason a particular line of reasoning actually does signal low status but nonetheless needs to be heard, we have an escape clause. It shouldn’t be used lightly, however.
Factual nitpick: scientific status doesn’t imply sexual status, in fact I gut-feel the real-world correlation is negative when controlled for income, though of course I don’t have enough data.
Value nitpick: if we manage to find important truths at the price of collectively looking like sex-starved nerds, I for one am willing to pay that price. Those of us who aren’t can always conceal their identities with nicknames.
if we manage to find important truths at the price of collectively looking like sex-starved nerds, I for one am willing to pay that price.
The question is whether that’s necessary (or helpful) for finding important truths. You implicitly assume it is a required cost. More generally, is “writing in a way expected to alienate large numbers of people” a price that we must pay in order for our community to succeed?
Any pervasive trend that results in our community being the sort of place that a Dawkins or Dennett or Pinker would avoid is a trend that we should carefully analyze, and the burden of proof is correspondingly high to show that the net benefits of that sort of behavior warrant allowing it. I don’t think anybody has shown that the sort of objectionable writing in question has such benefits or that there aren’t alternate ways of communicating the same ideas without being alienating, the primary cost being some extra effort required on the part of the writer.
The categorical goal should not be a “successful community”, but rather a truly rationalist community. As such the process of truth-finding should not be compromised by any social “niceties”.
Now, I can bear some extra effort on the writer’s part, but if you feel the pressure to please everyone, it is already a step in the direction of self-censorship, which should not be tolerated.
No policy here should step on such a slippery slope, for there is a reason why they are called such.
And an explicit ban on any topic is (of course) categorically not acceptable—be it PUA or whatnot; as such is already a huge slide down on said slope.
I am surprised there is not much more of an outcry following such a daring suggestion.
Rationality encompasses all—it has no taboo themes. Neither should you or this community.
There have already been explicit bans on topics. In the early days of Less Wrong, there were bans on discussing the Singularity and artificial intelligence, for fear that without such a ban the conversations about these topics would overwhelm the fledgling site and create an undesireable skewed tone. The ban was lifted after a certain amount of time, when the tone was supposedly established.
If pickup artist discussion is creating a tone that is skewed in ways we don’t like, it is not without precedent and not in opposition to rationality to end it.
I agree, pretty much completely.
In general, I thought the recent discussions on seduction were beneath us. First I was put off by the de-personalization of people considered as sexual partners; and then I was equally offended by the undercurrent of “some people don’t deserve (a high level of) sexual gratification, because they’re not attractive enough” running through some of the indignant responses that I should otherwise have agreed with. For all the talk about “altruism” and concern for “humanity” in this community, there wasn’t much of that spirit to be found anywhere in those threads.
Having locker-room discussions in public is low-status behavior. Now it is a debatable question whether we should go out of our way to signal high status. (I for one think the prestige of Overcoming Bias, run as it was by high-status folks like Robin Hanson and associated with no less than Oxford University, contributed in no small part to getting us this far, and is something we are in danger of losing to the extent we become perceived as a group of underachieving sex-starved male computer programmers in their twenties.) But I think most of us should be able to agree that signaling low status is not helpful toward our goals as a community (which after all don’t necessarily include individual members’ getting laid in the short term).
So, yes, this is in fact an argument for a certain kind of political correctness—just enough of it to avoid signaling low status if at all possible. Let me suggest a heuristic: this should in theory be a place where someone like Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett would be comfortable posting. (Speaking of which, why haven’t we seen them here? They share many of our goals and interests.) Now these are folks who definitely aren’t unwilling to call a spade a spade. At the same time I have a feeling they’d be turned off by some of the discussions of “PUA” and the like.
No no no. Discouraging topics with “low status” connotations (as opposed to topics which are politically divisive or needlessly exclusionary) is cowardly and epistemically dangerous. If we were playing a chronophone game, this would come out as “Let’s not discuss Copernicus’ theories: this should be a place where Jesuit scientists and philosophers can be comfortable”.
Rationalists should win, and one can win big by seeing things that society at large dares not point out just yet.
Nonsense. It was with the aim of preventing this misunderstanding that I suggested the Dawkins/Dennett test (apparently to no avail). “Low status” doesn’t mean what you seem to think; it’s not the same thing has holding a minority opinion. Galileo’s status was quite high, which is why he was treated as a threat by the church rather than being ignored as a lunatic. A more appropriate chronophone rendering might be: “Let’s make sure we wear our wigs and robes properly and have a Latin version ready to go .”
Finally note that I said “if at all possible”. If for some reason a particular line of reasoning actually does signal low status but nonetheless needs to be heard, we have an escape clause. It shouldn’t be used lightly, however.
Factual nitpick: scientific status doesn’t imply sexual status, in fact I gut-feel the real-world correlation is negative when controlled for income, though of course I don’t have enough data.
Value nitpick: if we manage to find important truths at the price of collectively looking like sex-starved nerds, I for one am willing to pay that price. Those of us who aren’t can always conceal their identities with nicknames.
The question is whether that’s necessary (or helpful) for finding important truths. You implicitly assume it is a required cost. More generally, is “writing in a way expected to alienate large numbers of people” a price that we must pay in order for our community to succeed?
Any pervasive trend that results in our community being the sort of place that a Dawkins or Dennett or Pinker would avoid is a trend that we should carefully analyze, and the burden of proof is correspondingly high to show that the net benefits of that sort of behavior warrant allowing it. I don’t think anybody has shown that the sort of objectionable writing in question has such benefits or that there aren’t alternate ways of communicating the same ideas without being alienating, the primary cost being some extra effort required on the part of the writer.
The categorical goal should not be a “successful community”, but rather a truly rationalist community. As such the process of truth-finding should not be compromised by any social “niceties”. Now, I can bear some extra effort on the writer’s part, but if you feel the pressure to please everyone, it is already a step in the direction of self-censorship, which should not be tolerated. No policy here should step on such a slippery slope, for there is a reason why they are called such.
And an explicit ban on any topic is (of course) categorically not acceptable—be it PUA or whatnot; as such is already a huge slide down on said slope. I am surprised there is not much more of an outcry following such a daring suggestion.
Rationality encompasses all—it has no taboo themes. Neither should you or this community.
There have already been explicit bans on topics. In the early days of Less Wrong, there were bans on discussing the Singularity and artificial intelligence, for fear that without such a ban the conversations about these topics would overwhelm the fledgling site and create an undesireable skewed tone. The ban was lifted after a certain amount of time, when the tone was supposedly established.
If pickup artist discussion is creating a tone that is skewed in ways we don’t like, it is not without precedent and not in opposition to rationality to end it.
You might want to read Eliezer’s posts on the importance of a healthy community. I will link some later if noone’s done it before me.
Here’s the link, after a minute’s effort. Wasn’t it worth that?
Fixed it for you.