Ah, I hadn’t taken in that the person complaining rudely that I hadn’t considered all the possibilities for why I got downvoted might be the person who downvoted me. In retrospect, I should have.
Anyway (and with some trepidation since I don’t much relish getting into an argument with someone who may possibly just take satisfaction in causing petty harm): no, it doesn’t look to me as if casebash’s arguments are much like 2+2=5, nor do I think my comments are as obvious as pointing out that actually it’s 4. The sort of expected-utility-maximizing that’s generally taken around these parts to be the heart of rationality really does have difficulties in the presence of infinities, and that does seem like it’s potentially a problem, and whether or not casebash’s specific objections are right they are certainly pointing in the direction of something that could use more thought.
I do not think I have ever encountered any case in which deliberately making a problem worse to draw attention to it has actually been beneficial overall. (There are some kinda-analogous things in realms other than human affairs, such as vaccination, or deliberately starting small forest fires to prevent bigger ones, but the analogy isn’t very close.)
If indeed LW has become irredeemably shit, then amplifying the problem won’t fix it (see: definition of “irredeemably”) so you might as well just fuck off and do something less pointless with your time. If it’s become redeemably shit, adding more shit seems unlikely to be the best way of redeeming it so again I warmly encourage you to do something less useless instead. But these things seem so obvious—dare I say it, so much like pointing out that 2+2=4? -- that I wonder whether, deep down, under the trollish exterior, there lurks a hankering for something better. Come to the Light Side! We have cookies.
(retracted)
Ah, I hadn’t taken in that the person complaining rudely that I hadn’t considered all the possibilities for why I got downvoted might be the person who downvoted me. In retrospect, I should have.
Anyway (and with some trepidation since I don’t much relish getting into an argument with someone who may possibly just take satisfaction in causing petty harm): no, it doesn’t look to me as if casebash’s arguments are much like 2+2=5, nor do I think my comments are as obvious as pointing out that actually it’s 4. The sort of expected-utility-maximizing that’s generally taken around these parts to be the heart of rationality really does have difficulties in the presence of infinities, and that does seem like it’s potentially a problem, and whether or not casebash’s specific objections are right they are certainly pointing in the direction of something that could use more thought.
I do not think I have ever encountered any case in which deliberately making a problem worse to draw attention to it has actually been beneficial overall. (There are some kinda-analogous things in realms other than human affairs, such as vaccination, or deliberately starting small forest fires to prevent bigger ones, but the analogy isn’t very close.)
If indeed LW has become irredeemably shit, then amplifying the problem won’t fix it (see: definition of “irredeemably”) so you might as well just fuck off and do something less pointless with your time. If it’s become redeemably shit, adding more shit seems unlikely to be the best way of redeeming it so again I warmly encourage you to do something less useless instead. But these things seem so obvious—dare I say it, so much like pointing out that 2+2=4? -- that I wonder whether, deep down, under the trollish exterior, there lurks a hankering for something better. Come to the Light Side! We have cookies.
I’ll let the rest of your comment stand, but:
2 + 2 = 2 + 2 + 0. A number subtracted from itself equals 0, and infinity is a number, so 2 + 2 = 2 + 2 + ∞ - ∞. Infinity plus one is still infinity, so 2 + 2 = 2 + 2 + (∞ + 1) - ∞ = 2 + 2 + (1 + ∞) - ∞ = (2 + 2 + 1) + (∞ - ∞) = 2 + 2 + 1 + 0 = 5. So nyah.
(Sorry, casebash, but it was too good a setup to ignore.)
LOL.
(retracted)
I can has raisin?