That’s how it strikes me also. To me Yudkowsky has most of the traits of a megalomaniacal supervillain, but I don’t hold that against him. I will give LessWrong this much credit: they still allow me to post here, unlike Anissimov who simply banned me outright from his blog.
I’m pretty sure Eliezer is consciously riffing on some elements of the megalomaniacal supervillain archetype; at the very least, he name-checks the archetype here and here in somewhat favorable terms. There are any number of reasons why he might be doing so, ranging from pretty clever memetic engineering to simply thinking it’s fun or cool. As you might be implying, though, that doesn’t make him megalomaniacal or a supervillain; we live in a world where bad guys aren’t easily identified by waxed mustaches and expansive mannerisms.
Good thing, too; I lost my goatee less than a year ago.
I expect it helps to have your content come up first—if people search for your name and the word “supervillain”. Currently 3 of the top 4 posts with those search terms are E.Y. posts.
That’s how it strikes me also. To me Yudkowsky has most of the traits of a megalomaniacal supervillain, but I don’t hold that against him. I will give LessWrong this much credit: they still allow me to post here, unlike Anissimov who simply banned me outright from his blog.
I’m pretty sure Eliezer is consciously riffing on some elements of the megalomaniacal supervillain archetype; at the very least, he name-checks the archetype here and here in somewhat favorable terms. There are any number of reasons why he might be doing so, ranging from pretty clever memetic engineering to simply thinking it’s fun or cool. As you might be implying, though, that doesn’t make him megalomaniacal or a supervillain; we live in a world where bad guys aren’t easily identified by waxed mustaches and expansive mannerisms.
Good thing, too; I lost my goatee less than a year ago.
I expect it helps to have your content come up first—if people search for your name and the word “supervillain”. Currently 3 of the top 4 posts with those search terms are E.Y. posts.
Since the quote is obsolete, as nhamann pointed out and as it says right on the top of the page, maybe you are being struck wrong.