As someone who has read many RAND papers and their retrospectives about the people in RAND 50 years ago, I strongly agree—if nothing else, because of RAND’s early computer work like constructing MANIAC and developing decision and game theory.
I think it gets closer to the truth if you replace 50 years with 100. A century ago communist ideas were the hip thing for a forward-thinking young person to believe in, especially in my home country (Russia), just like singularitarianism is now. This analogy is one of the main reasons why I’m not an outspoken singularitarian.
What makes you say that? Reading “lesswrong’s equivalent 50 years ago” makes me think RAND Corporation.
As someone who has read many RAND papers and their retrospectives about the people in RAND 50 years ago, I strongly agree—if nothing else, because of RAND’s early computer work like constructing MANIAC and developing decision and game theory.
I think it gets closer to the truth if you replace 50 years with 100. A century ago communist ideas were the hip thing for a forward-thinking young person to believe in, especially in my home country (Russia), just like singularitarianism is now. This analogy is one of the main reasons why I’m not an outspoken singularitarian.