Something I feel Yudkowsky doesn’t really talks about enough in the Sequences is how to be rational in a group, as part of a group and as a group.
I’ve been working on a series of posts centered around this—social rationality, if you will. So far, the best source for such materials remains Yvain’s writings on the topic on his blog; he really nails the art of having sane discussions. He popularised some ways of framing debate tactics such as motte-and-bailey, steelmanning, bravery debates and so on, which entered the SSC jargon.
I’m interested in expanding on that theme with topics such as emphasis fights (“yes, but”-ing) or arguing in bad faith, as examples of failure modes in collective truth-seeking, but in the end it all hinges on an ideally shared perception of morality, or of standards to hold oneself to. My approach relies heavily on motives and on my personal conception of morality, which is why it’s difficult to teach it without looking like I preach it. (At least Eliezer didn’t look too concerned about this one, though, but not everyone has the fortune to be him.) Besides, it’s a very complex and murky field, one best learned through experience and examples.
I’ve been working on a series of posts centered around this—social rationality, if you will. So far, the best source for such materials remains Yvain’s writings on the topic on his blog; he really nails the art of having sane discussions. He popularised some ways of framing debate tactics such as motte-and-bailey, steelmanning, bravery debates and so on, which entered the SSC jargon.
I’m interested in expanding on that theme with topics such as emphasis fights (“yes, but”-ing) or arguing in bad faith, as examples of failure modes in collective truth-seeking, but in the end it all hinges on an ideally shared perception of morality, or of standards to hold oneself to. My approach relies heavily on motives and on my personal conception of morality, which is why it’s difficult to teach it without looking like I preach it. (At least Eliezer didn’t look too concerned about this one, though, but not everyone has the fortune to be him.) Besides, it’s a very complex and murky field, one best learned through experience and examples.