BTW, I figured out why Eliezer looks like a cult leader to some people. It’s because he has both social authority (he’s a leader figure, solicits donations) and epistemological authority (he’s the top expert, wrote the sequences which are considered canonical).
If, for example, Wei Dai kicked Eliezer’s ass at FAI theory, LW would not appear cultish
This suggests that we should try to make someone else a social authority so that he doesn’t have to be.
Heard on #lesswrong:
(I hope posting only a log is ok)
Hopefully this provides incentive for people to kick Eliezer’s ass at FAI theory. You don’t want to look cultish, do you?
To me, the most appealing aspect of #lesswrong is that my comments will not be archived for posterity.
This is also an interesting quote.
Edit: I obviously missed the “only” in your note there.