VoiceOfRa

Karma: −557

VoiceOfRa 23 Dec 2015 3:08 UTC
2 points
in reply to: Lumifer’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread December 2015
I’d be even more suspicious of someone telling me that it’s not that simple.

VoiceOfRa 23 Dec 2015 3:04 UTC
13 points
in reply to: Lumifer’s comment on: Open thread, Dec. 21 - Dec. 27, 2015
One interesting point, not expanded up on, is this:

One writer chalks this concern up to a bunch of “conspiracy theor(ies)”.

Balding dismisses this by citing Premier Li Keqiang, but I think this objection illustrates a deeper problem with the way the phrase “conspiracy theory” is used. It’s frequently used to dismiss any suggestion that someone in authority is behaving badly regardless of whether an actual conspiracy would be required.

Let’s look at what it would take for Chinese economic data to be bad. The data is gathered by the central government by delegating gathering the data to appropriate individual branches, by province, industry, etc. So what happens if someone at that level decides to fudge with the data for whatever reason (possibly to make his province and/or industry look better). The aggregate data will be wrong. And that’s just one person on one level. In reality, of course, there are many levels in the hierarchy and many corrupt people in all of them.

VoiceOfRa 23 Dec 2015 2:26 UTC
1 point
in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: Open thread, Dec. 21 - Dec. 27, 2015

Recently moridinamael wrote about diswashers: As a pampered modern person, the worst part of my life is washing dishes. (Or, rinsing dishes and loading the dish washer.) How long before I can buy a robot to automate this for me?

Imagine what it was like before the dishwasher.

VoiceOfRa 23 Dec 2015 1:47 UTC
−1 points
in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: Estimate the Cost of Immortality

Wikipedia for example creates a lot of value with being structured as a network.

Which fails completely when the subject is in any way political or controversial. And by fail completely, I mean produces articles which anti-correlate with reality.

VoiceOfRa 19 Dec 2015 2:31 UTC
−1 points
in reply to: Xyrik’s comment on: Estimate the Cost of Immortality

Yeah, part of what I was intending in the scenario would be that everyone realizes that we could make much faster technological advances (At least, that’s the theory) if we didn’t bother with keeping track of who owes who.

Except you need to keep track of who (or which algorithm if we want to be sufficiently abstract) is doing the most to contribute and being most efficient so that his success can be repeated in other parts of the system.

VoiceOfRa 19 Dec 2015 2:23 UTC
1 point
in reply to: WhyAsk’s comment on: Open thread, December 7-13, 2015
It’s not stable. The problems I mentioned are getting worse.

VoiceOfRa 18 Dec 2015 2:44 UTC
−8 points
in reply to: hg00’s comment on: LessWrong 2.0
How about banning concern trolls like hg00?

VoiceOfRa 17 Dec 2015 23:58 UTC
−5 points
on: The Art of Lawfare and Litigation strategy

Do you support or oppose the government suing tobacco companies to recover health care costs caused by tobacco use?

Do you support or oppose the government suing pro-immigration organizations to recover social service and law enforcement costs caused by the higher propensity of immigrants to commit crimes and be in need of social services?

VoiceOfRa 17 Dec 2015 19:46 UTC
3 points
in reply to: Lumifer’s comment on: Estimate the Cost of Immortality

Informationally equivalent = plays a role in the flow of information within the system that is equivalent to the role of money in the flow of information within economy.

Ok, I don’t see how that applied to the examples in question unless you expand the meaning of “equivalent” so broadly that it becomes meaningless.

VoiceOfRa 17 Dec 2015 19:43 UTC
−1 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Open thread, December 7-13, 2015
This for example.

VoiceOfRa 17 Dec 2015 2:50 UTC
1 point
in reply to: mwengler’s comment on: Estimate the Cost of Immortality
My point is that in the “whole world adopts anarchy” scenario the warlords wouldn’t be able to use trucks. Heck, without the NGOs’ money they probably wouldn’t be able to use trucks.

VoiceOfRa 17 Dec 2015 2:47 UTC
3 points
in reply to: Lumifer’s comment on: Estimate the Cost of Immortality
Could you define what you mean by “informationally equivalent”? Merely writing a word in bold all caps does not grant it magical powers.

VoiceOfRa 16 Dec 2015 7:18 UTC
3 points
in reply to: mwengler’s comment on: Estimate the Cost of Immortality
Note that the Somali warlords don’t extract or refine gas themselves, they barter for it from better organized nations. Heck, according to the article the vehicles were paid for by misguided foreign NGOs.

VoiceOfRa 16 Dec 2015 7:13 UTC
3 points
in reply to: Lumifer’s comment on: Estimate the Cost of Immortality

Cells certainly utilize a variety of currencies, mostly energy in various forms.

Energy is a resource, not a currency. Cells don’t trade amino acids for energy with each other.

I’m pretty sure an anthill or a termite mound has some feedback systems which control the foraging of ants and termites.

Probably, although we don’t fully understand them. Also feedback systems =/= currency.

VoiceOfRa 16 Dec 2015 4:05 UTC
−7 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Open thread, December 7-13, 2015

Imagine a person was abused for a large part of their childhood and is subsequently traumatised and mentally ill, then, upon regaining greater functioning as an adult decides to extort their abusive parents for money with the threat of exposing them while still counting on inheritence, instead of simply going to the authorities and approaching a legal settlement (expecting that will cut of any pleasant relations). Are there actions unconscionable? What would you do in their situation?

Depends on what you mean by “abuse”? A lot of what’s been called “child abuse”, e.g., spanking, isn’t. On the other hand, legitimate abuse happens as well.

VoiceOfRa 16 Dec 2015 3:36 UTC
−5 points
in reply to: mwengler’s comment on: Estimate the Cost of Immortality

Whether that is machine AI, or Aliens, or cyborg slave chimpanzees and apes, I would bet dollars to donuts that our caretakers providing us with all the stuff we currently get and then some, will have something which is informationally equivalent to money in their system.

Do ants have something equivalent to money? Do your cells?

VoiceOfRa 16 Dec 2015 3:35 UTC
−5 points
in reply to: mwengler’s comment on: Estimate the Cost of Immortality

if your luck is lousy you get roving militias in Toyota pick-up trucks with machine guns mounted in the back.

Probably not. Toyota pick-ups require gasoline. Extracting oil and refining it into gasoline is a sufficiently complex process that it’s impossible under the kinds of property regimes the “roving bandits” can maintain.

VoiceOfRa 16 Dec 2015 3:30 UTC
1 point
in reply to: gjm’s comment on: Estimate the Cost of Immortality

My interpretation of Xyrik’s question was more like “Imagine that by some unspecified magic we have solved that problem, so that everyone willingly pitches in to do their bit. What are the drawbacks then?”

Depends on the nature of the magic. Most of the obvious ones I can think of basically require the destruction of all individuality.

VoiceOfRa 16 Dec 2015 3:20 UTC
−1 points
in reply to: Lumifer’s comment on: How to Not Lose an Argument
Well, if what you want to accomplish is motivating large groups of people into supporting you and using them to conquer a large empire, you should study what they did and how they did it.

VoiceOfRa 16 Dec 2015 3:15 UTC
2 points
in reply to: WhyAsk’s comment on: Open thread, December 7-13, 2015
A lot of problems that the establishment has been ignoring for decades, e.g., illegal immigration, out of control PC policing, pensions for government employees crowding out other spending, are starting to become critical and the seasoned politicians don’t know how to address these problems. In fact they probably can’t be addressed without upsetting established interests to whom the seasoned politicians are beholden to.