Micaiah_Chang

Karma: 102

Micaiah_Chang Feb 8, 2012, 7:00 AM
2 points
on: Elevator pitches/responses for rationality / AI
I’m not sure if this deserves its own article, so I’m posting it here: What would be an interesting cognitive bias / debiasing technique to cover in a [Pecha kucha] (http://www.pecha-kucha.org/what) style presentation for a college writing class?

Given the format, it should be fairly easy to explain(I have less time than advertised, only 15 slides instead of 20!) So far, I’ve thought about doing the planning fallacy, representativeness heuristic or the disjunction fallacy. All three are ones I can already speak casually about and don’t leap out at me as empowering motivated cognition (...a topic which would empower it, huh)

I would personally like to do Bayes Theorem, but I can’t 1) Think of a way to compress it down to five minutes 2) Can’t think of ways for other people to help compress it down to five minutes without also omitting the math.

Downvote if this is off topic. If not, please tell me why because I’ll just assume it’s an offtopic downvote!

Micaiah_Chang Sep 21, 2011, 7:21 PM
14 points
in reply to: Solvent’s comment on: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 9
I wonder if there’s a different attitude toward spoilers or “great works of art” in the Wizarding World because of memory charms. Hats which could charm endings or plots out of people’s minds, people who would only read one book over and over again by repeatedly blasting it out of their heads, or museums/theme parks Obliviating any previous experience there so that every time is fresh.

Would also like to see Eliezer lampshade the Snape kills Dumbledore spoiler by having everyone present self obliviate or something similar.

Micaiah_Chang Sep 18, 2011, 10:50 PM
3 points
on: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 9
One thing that I’ve wondered about-and note that I’m not entirely sure if this is the right venue for asking- is what Eliezer thinks about the Visual Novel format a storyline structure (obviously not for MOR, that increases the entry barrier way too much for a cute and pop introduction to Rationality. ) I know that he decided to use the Normal/True ending for the Three Worlds Collide story, but what does he think about, let’s say, the relatively long common route into different story branches format, the three “distinct” story format (Fate/Stay Night), or the “controlled redo format” (sort of like Tsukihime, where in order to get a complete idea of the setting, characterization and themes you need to finish all the routes in a certain order).

I half wish there’s a magical encyclopedia for MoR like there was in Fate/Stay Night, but that’s understandably not as fun to read or write as actually showcasing the powers.

Although talking about made me think: I totally want to see an Omake where Harry gets Bad Ended by getting addicted to video games after he goes back to his parents for the summer...

Micaiah_Chang Sep 1, 2011, 7:46 AM
1 point
on: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 8
I hope there is far more Harry doing chuu2 (third definition) things in the story. At the very least I find it completely awesome when developed characters that I like start doing utterly chuu2 things like making up chants, pretending they are in contact with mysterious entities, laughing insanely for no reason or trying to topple the status quo with mad scientist powers

...I mean come ON they even share the same tendency to evilly laugh. Although, yes one is an obvious parody of chuu2 actions and one is just pretending to be one for laughs. I wonder if Harry will start sending owls with cryptic messages on them to nowhere or give Hermione 50 different nicknames (all affectionately referring to her as his minion)

Bwahahahahahaa

Micaiah_Chang Aug 25, 2011, 5:28 PM
14 points
in reply to: Xachariah’s comment on: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 8
Part of the time when I was reading Deathly Hallows, and all of the time I was reading MoR I always expected Harry or at least SOMEONE else to act like Kiritsugu from Fate/Zero. Imagine: Enchanted portkeys with no destination yet programmed in attached to home made bombs, flash-bang grenades as a staple in wizarding duels to disrupt aiming/concentration, to say nothing of the videogameesque ability to actually carry around an entire armory with you or heal yourself much quicker EVEN IF YOU DON’T USE MAGIC.

(For those of you who don’t know, Kiritsugu is a mage assassin who takes advantage of the Magic Association’s technophobia and uses weapons as a regular part of the kit: Mages aren’t going to defend against you if you’re a mile off with a sniper rifle and they aren’t going to defend against landmines if they don’t know they exist!)

Edit: Actually, scratch the Kiritsugu idea I just want Neville to cast a shield charm of some sort at his feet so he can rocket jump from staircase to staircase at some point. Pity Quake 2 is five years in the future.

Micaiah_Chang Aug 10, 2011, 8:17 AM
2 points
in reply to: JGWeissman’s comment on: Meetup : San Diego social meet-up
Dibs on that ride.

Again.

I had a lot of fun last time, but somehow magically managed to miss out on all the Singularity-type discussions. Or at least, I thought I did. Should make it a goal to talk with someone savvy enough on the topic.

Also, I think the lack of speakers for the projector should be in the original post too; just in case someone wants to show a video too and for some ~mysterious~ reason the laptop speakers aren’t loud enough.

Micaiah_Chang Jul 23, 2011, 10:00 PM
11 points
on: Welcome to Less Wrong! (2010-2011)
Hello all!

I’m a twenty year old college student studying physics. My introduction to LessWrong has most likely been lost to the ravages of time (although there’s this nagging feeling I was linked here by a random forum post on GameFAQs). That was about a year, year and a half ago. I’ve read about halfway through the sequences via the haphazard method of “Wow that’s interesting I guess I’ll drop the next hour or so reading it.” While I realize that finishing the sequences is highly recommended, I haven’t seen a significant amount of large-inferential-distance-statements-oh-geez-what-is-going-on here type posts so I think I’ll be fine despite my incompleteness.

As to the more pertinent question of my road to rationality, well, I was raised in China where religion was nearly nonexistent and my first exposure to the Bible was a picture book which I treated more or less like Greek or Egyptian myths (~8 years old). This lead to a natural interest in the New Atheism movement which articulated my unspoken problems with religion and exposing me to the skeptics community as well (15-17 years old). However, a small nag at the back of my mind floated that there was something I was doing wrong if I was pursuing truth, despite the apparent correctness of the atheist position!

In comes LessWrong (~19 years old). In some cases, merely repeating things that I had thought and agreed with (but never acted upon! so basically not anything I valued) to opening up entirely new avenues of thought (Mostly newcombtype problems and decision theories). A post that Yvain made a while back about X-rationality, which downplayed the clarity of thought afforded by reading LessWrong, was in complete opposition to my own experience. I felt something close to constant… joy I suppose? as I observed previously confusing and opaque subjects become understandable and transparent. Where’s Waldo with model fitting induced utilitons if you will.

The catalyst for joining the community though, was the meetup here in the San Diego area. While it would be inaccurate to say that I’m unsatisfied with my life, I feel as if a lot of my satisfaction arises out of complacency and adherence to the status quo rather than a response to accomplishing any goals (a poor man’s wirehead indeed!). Going to a meetup with a lot of smart, engaged and most of all unconfused people might clear up my confusion for my life goals, but the real goal here is to meet new people.

Perhaps I’ll just use this account as a karma, PM and meetup bot, I do have a busy schedule. Or perhaps I will try to contribute to the community. Either way, the plan is to have fun, take names and fall off the shoulders of giants repeatedly.

Note, Micaiah is not my real first name, it arose out of a conversation where a friend compared me to the Biblical prophet, because I frequently make unpleasant predictions which turn out to be true anyway.