I find the no politics guideline a bit odd. I mean, shouldn’t a rational humanist arrive at certain political positions? Why not make those explicit?
Politics is nearly all signalling. Positions that send good signals only occasional overlap with positions that are rational.
Also the other apes will bash my head in with a rock so I really need to seem to be right even if I’m wrong. Being right on politics and the other side being wrong is a matter of life and death.
Talking about politics may be mostly signaling, but politics itself-that is, the decisions made and policies enacted-is something else that is really, really important.
If you care about the future of humanity and you have examined the evidence, then you should be concerned about global warming. I don’t understand how that statement should be any more controversial than being concerned about the Singularity.
Talking about politics may be mostly signaling, but politics itself-that is, the decisions made and policies enacted-is something else that is really, really important.
Then I will get back to you as soon as I have meaningful influence over any policies enacted.
Good point. One interesting thing you can do is advocate for or attempt to participate in a revolution: the odds may be very low of succeeding, but the payoff of successfully succeeding could be almost arbitrarily large, and so the expected utility of doing so could be tremendous.
Politics is nearly all signalling. Positions that send good signals only occasional overlap with positions that are rational.
Also the other apes will bash my head in with a rock so I really need to seem to be right even if I’m wrong. Being right on politics and the other side being wrong is a matter of life and death.
Talking about politics may be mostly signaling, but politics itself-that is, the decisions made and policies enacted-is something else that is really, really important.
If you care about the future of humanity and you have examined the evidence, then you should be concerned about global warming. I don’t understand how that statement should be any more controversial than being concerned about the Singularity.
Then I will get back to you as soon as I have meaningful influence over any policies enacted.
Good point. One interesting thing you can do is advocate for or attempt to participate in a revolution: the odds may be very low of succeeding, but the payoff of successfully succeeding could be almost arbitrarily large, and so the expected utility of doing so could be tremendous.