“Applause lights” doesn’t mean “simple” or even “wrong”; it’s more like “things that sounds good regardless of rightness or wrongness in a particular context”. Or at least that’s how it makes sense to me to use it.
This surprised me. The definition I’d have given for applause lights would have been “A statement so obviously the Right Thing that it provides no useful information”.
Then allow me to step in as one of the foremost experts on the writings of Eliezer (self-proclaimed).
All that applause lights ‘mean’ is “you should clap now”. From the wiki:
It’s not so much a propositional statement, as the equivalent of the “Applause” light that tells a studio audience when to clap.
(Beware—this example is mind-killing)
Thus, you say “democracy” to get people to nod their head and agree with you. This is not because “democracy” means anything obviously right; also, the label gets applied inconsistently in both directions. The entire purpose of calling something “democracy” in those contexts is to mark it as “approved”.
Then allow me to step in as one of the foremost experts on the writings of Eliezer (self-proclaimed).
All that applause lights ‘mean’ is “you should clap now”. From the wiki:
(Beware—this example is mind-killing)
Thus, you say “democracy” to get people to nod their head and agree with you. This is not because “democracy” means anything obviously right; also, the label gets applied inconsistently in both directions. The entire purpose of calling something “democracy” in those contexts is to mark it as “approved”.