There are a few things—voting, lotteries, the viability of picking up pennies off the ground—that draw way too much attention from rationalists. Not criticizing you here, I’m interested in them too!
I don’t think it is answered. The person who says they voted is not Eliezer, and his general comment about whom to vote for says nothing about whether he himself actually votes; just that he voted at one time in the past. (I can recommend that you wear a parachute while skydiving, but that doesn’t mean I do or do not think skydiving is something worth doing & have done it myself & will do it again.)
Even if it were not, Eliezer followed up further down that comment tree suggesting that his choice was clear in the 2008 elections.
I figured “I was therefore obliged to vote for third parties wherever possible, to penalize the Republicrats for getting grabby” seemed like the kind of argument that doesn’t apply to only a single election.
Perhaps I’m confused by “the person who says they voted is not Eliezer;” that quote, after all, was from this article he wrote.
I was referring to CronoDAS who said that they voted in ’08. Eliezer didn’t; ‘whenever possible’ is pretty slippery.
(Not that I think there’s any point to asking how Eliezer votes, being that he lives in California, I thought. In a state like that, voting is a pure waste of time, unless someone has come up with a really ingenious version of Newcomb’s Paradox showing you should vote even when you know your vote won’t make a difference.)
Margins matter—politicians don’t want to take a chance when they don’t have to, and if it looks like some policy leads to weaker support or stronger support, they act accordingly.
Do you vote?
There are a few things—voting, lotteries, the viability of picking up pennies off the ground—that draw way too much attention from rationalists. Not criticizing you here, I’m interested in them too!
Answered in this comment.
I don’t think it is answered. The person who says they voted is not Eliezer, and his general comment about whom to vote for says nothing about whether he himself actually votes; just that he voted at one time in the past. (I can recommend that you wear a parachute while skydiving, but that doesn’t mean I do or do not think skydiving is something worth doing & have done it myself & will do it again.)
Even if it were not, Eliezer followed up further down that comment tree suggesting that his choice was clear in the 2008 elections.
I figured “I was therefore obliged to vote for third parties wherever possible, to penalize the Republicrats for getting grabby” seemed like the kind of argument that doesn’t apply to only a single election.
Perhaps I’m confused by “the person who says they voted is not Eliezer;” that quote, after all, was from this article he wrote.
I was referring to CronoDAS who said that they voted in ’08. Eliezer didn’t; ‘whenever possible’ is pretty slippery.
(Not that I think there’s any point to asking how Eliezer votes, being that he lives in California, I thought. In a state like that, voting is a pure waste of time, unless someone has come up with a really ingenious version of Newcomb’s Paradox showing you should vote even when you know your vote won’t make a difference.)
Margins matter—politicians don’t want to take a chance when they don’t have to, and if it looks like some policy leads to weaker support or stronger support, they act accordingly.