My friends suggested I become a missionary, but to me, it made far more sense to become a high profile lawyer and donate 90% of my salary to fund a dozen other missionaries. (A Christian version of effective altruism?) No one ever understood!
That is awesome!
I’m starting by reading about science
If you haven’t heard of HPMOR, check it out here. Anyway, there’s this great sequence where Harry teaches the ways of science to Drako Malfoy… it’s great! And I think very worthwhile for a beginner to read.
How can I have morality?? Do I just have to rely on intuition? If the whole world relied on reason alone to make decisions, couldn’t we rationalize a LOT of things that we intuit as wrong? + other things you mention
If you haven’t already heard of it, check out the idea of terminal values. Something tells me that you understand it (at least on some level) though. Anyway, Eliezer seems to say something about Occam’s Razor justifying our intuitive feelings about what’s moral. Personally, I don’t really get it. I don’t see how a terminal value could ever be rational. My understanding is that rationality is about achieving terminal values, not choosing them. However, I notice confusion and don’t have strong opinions.
Ahhh this is all so cool! You guys are so cool. I can’t wait to read the sequences and more posts around this site!
Welcome :) LessWrong has had a huge positive impact on my life. I hope and suspect that the same will be true for you!
I just read Where Recursive Justification Hits Bottom, and it was perfect and super relevant, thanks. “What else could I possibly use? Indeed, no matter what I did with this dilemma, it would be me doing it. Even if I trusted something else… it would be my own decision to trust it.” This is basically what I’ve been telling people who ask me how I can trust my own reason, but it’s great to have more good points to bring up. All the posts I’ve read so far have been so clear and well-written, I can’t help but smile and nod as I go.
I’m going to start with the e-book, and once I finish that, I’ll probably look into HPMOR! I’ve seen it mentioned a lot around here, so I figure it must be great, but um, should I read the original Harry Potter first? Growing up, I was never allowed to.
I clicked the terminal values link, and then another link, and then another, and then another… then I googled what Occam’s razor is… my questions about morality are still far from settled, but all this gives me a lot to think about, so thank you :)
Sorry for the late reply. Glad to be of assistance!
I’m going to start with the e-book, and once I finish that, I’ll probably look into HPMOR!
That seems reasonable. A thought of mine on the sequences: they could be a bit dense and difficult to understand at times. I think some version of the 20⁄80 rule applies, and I’d approach the reading with this in mind. In other words, there’s a lot of material and a lot of it requires a lot of thought, and so a proper reading would probably take many months. And it would probably take years to achieve true understanding. However, there’s still a lot of really important core principles that you could get in a couple of weeks.
Personally, I think that knowing the gist of the story is sufficient.
I saw some of your other comments and see that you still have a lot of questions and are a bit hesitant to post here before doing more reading. I think that people will be very receptive to any sort of comments and questions as long as you’re open minded and curious. And if you ever just don’t want to say something publicly, feel free to message me privately.
Thanks! I’m 30% through now. I’ve really been enjoying them so far, going back to reread certain chapters and recommending others like crazy based on conversations about similar but far less articulate thoughts I’ve had in the past. Even without knowing much about the content of HPMOR, I’m looking forward to it already just for its having been written by the same author.
Thanks for your offer, I will probably take you up on it some day! Although you’re right that people here seem pretty receptive to honest questions. I asked a question in another thread a few days ago, about ambition vs. hedonism, an issue I’ve always wondered about...no replies so far, but I did get some “karma” so that felt nice, haha :)
Occam’s Razor justifying our intuitive feelings about what’s moral
Wait, what? Do you mean Simplified Humanism? I hope that’s more of a description than a full argument. One could perhaps turn it into an argument by showing that our root values come from evolution—causally, not in the sense of moral reasons—and making a case that you would not expect them to have exceptions in those exact places.
Eliezer also makes a brief attempt to explain his opponents’ motives. This may be true, but I don’t think we should dwell on it.
That is awesome!
If you haven’t heard of HPMOR, check it out here. Anyway, there’s this great sequence where Harry teaches the ways of science to Drako Malfoy… it’s great! And I think very worthwhile for a beginner to read.
Eliezer talks about a lot of this in the Metaethics Sequence, particularly in the post Where Recursive Justification Hits Bottom.
If you haven’t already heard of it, check out the idea of terminal values. Something tells me that you understand it (at least on some level) though. Anyway, Eliezer seems to say something about Occam’s Razor justifying our intuitive feelings about what’s moral. Personally, I don’t really get it. I don’t see how a terminal value could ever be rational. My understanding is that rationality is about achieving terminal values, not choosing them. However, I notice confusion and don’t have strong opinions.
Welcome :) LessWrong has had a huge positive impact on my life. I hope and suspect that the same will be true for you!
Thanks for the welcome!!
I just read Where Recursive Justification Hits Bottom, and it was perfect and super relevant, thanks. “What else could I possibly use? Indeed, no matter what I did with this dilemma, it would be me doing it. Even if I trusted something else… it would be my own decision to trust it.” This is basically what I’ve been telling people who ask me how I can trust my own reason, but it’s great to have more good points to bring up. All the posts I’ve read so far have been so clear and well-written, I can’t help but smile and nod as I go.
I’m going to start with the e-book, and once I finish that, I’ll probably look into HPMOR! I’ve seen it mentioned a lot around here, so I figure it must be great, but um, should I read the original Harry Potter first? Growing up, I was never allowed to.
I clicked the terminal values link, and then another link, and then another, and then another… then I googled what Occam’s razor is… my questions about morality are still far from settled, but all this gives me a lot to think about, so thank you :)
Sorry for the late reply. Glad to be of assistance!
That seems reasonable. A thought of mine on the sequences: they could be a bit dense and difficult to understand at times. I think some version of the 20⁄80 rule applies, and I’d approach the reading with this in mind. In other words, there’s a lot of material and a lot of it requires a lot of thought, and so a proper reading would probably take many months. And it would probably take years to achieve true understanding. However, there’s still a lot of really important core principles that you could get in a couple of weeks.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9203769
Personally, I think that knowing the gist of the story is sufficient.
I saw some of your other comments and see that you still have a lot of questions and are a bit hesitant to post here before doing more reading. I think that people will be very receptive to any sort of comments and questions as long as you’re open minded and curious. And if you ever just don’t want to say something publicly, feel free to message me privately.
Thanks! I’m 30% through now. I’ve really been enjoying them so far, going back to reread certain chapters and recommending others like crazy based on conversations about similar but far less articulate thoughts I’ve had in the past. Even without knowing much about the content of HPMOR, I’m looking forward to it already just for its having been written by the same author.
Thanks for your offer, I will probably take you up on it some day! Although you’re right that people here seem pretty receptive to honest questions. I asked a question in another thread a few days ago, about ambition vs. hedonism, an issue I’ve always wondered about...no replies so far, but I did get some “karma” so that felt nice, haha :)
30% through the Rationality book?!! WOW!
I responded to your comment about ambition vs. hedonism.
Wait, what? Do you mean Simplified Humanism? I hope that’s more of a description than a full argument. One could perhaps turn it into an argument by showing that our root values come from evolution—causally, not in the sense of moral reasons—and making a case that you would not expect them to have exceptions in those exact places.
Eliezer also makes a brief attempt to explain his opponents’ motives. This may be true, but I don’t think we should dwell on it.
Honestly I don’t really know.