Caledonian: “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anyone speak of the aesthetic aspects of rational thought before.”
It’s funny—the phrase “aesthetics of rationality” appears in the final paragraph of Eliezer’s post; apparently it’s what the whole thing was about. But I didn’t notice it either, until I was seriously casting about for some way to show that Caledonian person why their criticism was off the mark. I think Eliezer’s point may be something like this: the aesthetics of rationality are all that could truly make it an end in itself; this necessarily involves attachment to a particular notion of rationality; and this attachment will hinder genuine progress in rationality, which may require adoption of a different but superior notion of rationality.
Along the way, I think I belatedly noticed a subtext to your own first comment too—you think Eliezer, and other promethean transhumanists like him, are themselves examples of limited rationality, their goals or expectations being unrealistic and therefore irrational. I’ve seen you say as much here, but I hadn’t figured out that this was probably on your mind as you wrote your comment.
Anyway, I should get back to thinking about specks versus torture.
Caledonian: “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anyone speak of the aesthetic aspects of rational thought before.”
It’s funny—the phrase “aesthetics of rationality” appears in the final paragraph of Eliezer’s post; apparently it’s what the whole thing was about. But I didn’t notice it either, until I was seriously casting about for some way to show that Caledonian person why their criticism was off the mark. I think Eliezer’s point may be something like this: the aesthetics of rationality are all that could truly make it an end in itself; this necessarily involves attachment to a particular notion of rationality; and this attachment will hinder genuine progress in rationality, which may require adoption of a different but superior notion of rationality.
Along the way, I think I belatedly noticed a subtext to your own first comment too—you think Eliezer, and other promethean transhumanists like him, are themselves examples of limited rationality, their goals or expectations being unrealistic and therefore irrational. I’ve seen you say as much here, but I hadn’t figured out that this was probably on your mind as you wrote your comment.
Anyway, I should get back to thinking about specks versus torture.