There are a few short stories/essays that I’m pretty sure I came across on lesswrong but have been unable to find with my brief, lazy googling. If you know any of these off the top of your head it would be much appreciated.
Story about a kingdom tormented by a dragon that demanded villagers be regularly sacrificed to it. People attempted to rationalize the situation and make excuses for the state of affairs. Eventually something is done about the dragon and the people lament that it took them so long. The dragon symbolized death.
Essay about a brain in a vat. Initially can remote control a body and finds it interesting that it feels like he exists “in” the body even though he knows he’s back in a vat. The body breaks down and all of a sudden it’s very obvious that he exists in the vat and not the body. Then the brain is copied onto two separate computers running in parallel. While they are in sync it is as if they are the same person but they eventually fall out of sync with disastrous results for the copy not in control on the body.
Essay about children’s rights. I don’t remember much of this one but I know it referenced the tng episode where Picard and some others revert to children in a transporter malfunction.
There are a few short stories/essays that I’m pretty sure I came across on lesswrong but have been unable to find with my brief, lazy googling. If you know any of these off the top of your head it would be much appreciated.
Story about a kingdom tormented by a dragon that demanded villagers be regularly sacrificed to it. People attempted to rationalize the situation and make excuses for the state of affairs. Eventually something is done about the dragon and the people lament that it took them so long. The dragon symbolized death.
Essay about a brain in a vat. Initially can remote control a body and finds it interesting that it feels like he exists “in” the body even though he knows he’s back in a vat. The body breaks down and all of a sudden it’s very obvious that he exists in the vat and not the body. Then the brain is copied onto two separate computers running in parallel. While they are in sync it is as if they are the same person but they eventually fall out of sync with disastrous results for the copy not in control on the body.
Essay about children’s rights. I don’t remember much of this one but I know it referenced the tng episode where Picard and some others revert to children in a transporter malfunction.
You may be thinking of Nick Bostrom’s “The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant”, Daniel C. Dennett’s “Where Am I?”, and David Deutsch’s “The Final Prejudice”, respectively. Best wishes, the Less Wrong Reference Desk.
Thank you! Was just looking for #1 and wasn’t sure what it was called. Searched LW for “dragon sacrifice”. This came up. Wonderful.
Perfect, thanks!