The Less Wrong Mock Thread: The Big Yudkowsky

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > General Bullshit > The Less Wrong Mock Thread: The Big Yudkowsky

Lenisto: Nov 1, 2012

Malderi posted:

Let's make fun of something new, like Yudkowsky officiating at a wedding.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/dqz/a_marriage_ceremony_for_aspiring_rationalists/

Why are none of them wearing shoes? I could understand the bridesmaids taking their heels off but Yud and the groomsmen are all barefoot too.

edit: in the video from that link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUl2oFSWcEU

# ? Aug 28, 2014 19:49

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 4, 2024 08:36

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Malderi posted:

Let's make fun of something new, like Yudkowsky officiating at a wedding.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/dqz/a_marriage_ceremony_for_aspiring_rationalists/

This is some Jack Handy poo poo:

quote:

Marriage is no longer something that everyone has to do, and there isn�t just one kind of marriage, or one meaning of marriage. But at least so far as I can tell from the outside, Will and Divia seem to have a perfect romance, pretty much. And while romances like that exist, the ancient institution of marriage will continue into the future, I think.

(...)

Elizabeth Moon once wrote that courage is inherent in all living things; it is the quality that keeps them alive; it is courage that splits the acorn and sends the rootlet down into soil to search for sustenance. This is not literally true. Acorns don't have brains so they can't experience courage.

(...)

As it is not our place to deny that, neither is it within our power to permit it. There is no higher authority whose blessings must be sought, and we can't wish them good luck because there's no such thing in the universe as luck. We could say, "We wish you happy lives as the result of your own decisions!", but wishing doesn't make anything happen.

I know I definitely want my marriage ceremony performed by someone who spends half the "blessing" talking about how marriage is an outdated custom, but it's okay because my partner and I "seem to have a perfect romance, pretty much," and then proceeds to undercut every metaphor with literal pedantry about how acorns don't have brains and good wishes are pointless. That's definitely a good way to start a shared life together and not evidence of following a bizarre, autistic cult leader into God knows what.

# ? Aug 28, 2014 21:58

Epitope: Nov 27, 2006; Grimey Drawer

quote:

We could say, "We wish you happy lives as the result of your own decisions!", but wishing doesn't make anything happen.

Ah yes, because the only mechanism by which wishes might affect reality is by genie magic. Rationality!

# ? Aug 28, 2014 23:28

Spazzle: Jul 5, 2003

Antivehicular posted:

This is some Jack Handy poo poo:

I know I definitely want my marriage ceremony performed by someone who spends half the "blessing" talking about how marriage is an outdated custom, but it's okay because my partner and I "seem to have a perfect romance, pretty much," and then proceeds to undercut every metaphor with literal pedantry about how acorns don't have brains and good wishes are pointless. That's definitely a good way to start a shared life together and not evidence of following a bizarre, autistic cult leader into God knows what.

I went to a Catholic wedding where the priest blamed bad weather on the gays. Weddings allow shitheads to rant to a captive audience.

# ? Aug 28, 2014 23:38

Nessus: Dec 22, 2003; After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!

Spazzle posted:

I went to a Catholic wedding where the priest blamed bad weather on the gays. Weddings allow shitheads to rant to a captive audience.

Like, for serious, or like as a gag? I knew a priest once who would blame things like power outages on "Protestants" but it was quite clear he was having some fun.

# ? Aug 28, 2014 23:40

Epitope: Nov 27, 2006; Grimey Drawer

Nessus posted:

Like, for serious, or like as a gag? I knew a priest once who would blame things like power outages on "Protestants" but it was quite clear he was having some fun.

Yudkowsky is having some fun too. He jokes about living forever, and they laugh, but there's actual ridiculous beliefs down in there

# ? Aug 28, 2014 23:54

Spazzle: Jul 5, 2003

Nessus posted:

Like, for serious, or like as a gag? I knew a priest once who would blame things like power outages on "Protestants" but it was quite clear he was having some fun.

100% serious. It was pretty gross.

# ? Aug 29, 2014 01:29

Squidster: Oct 7, 2008; ✋😢Life's just better with Ominous Gloves🤗🧤

DACK FAYDEN posted:

Doesn't he... already have a full-time slave? What the gently caress do you need another one of those for?

Whoa whoa, back the hell up. I've only been casually following this whole shebang, but could you elaborate on this?

# ? Aug 29, 2014 02:16

Ratoslov: Feb 15, 2012; Now prepare yourselves! You're the guests of honor at the Greatest Kung Fu Cannibal BBQ Ever!

pentyne posted:

And think fanfiction is high art, instead of mediocre at best authors simply rewriting established IP with their own twists.

Hey, many of the great novels of the Western canon are fanfiction. Indeed, Dante's Divine Comedy is self-insert Bible fanfiction where he and his favorite dead author go on a guided tour of the afterlives in order to save the soul of (and impress) that one girl that Dante had a creepy crush on.

# ? Aug 29, 2014 02:40

RPATDO_LAMD: Mar 22, 2013; 🐘🪠🍆

Squidster posted:

Whoa whoa, back the hell up. I've only been casually following this whole shebang, but could you elaborate on this?

Someone posted his OKCupid page. Somewhere on it he mentioned that he had a full-time BDSM sex slave. (I think he also said that they met through his harry potter fanfiction.)

# ? Aug 29, 2014 02:41

Absurd Alhazred: Mar 27, 2010; by Athanatos

Ratoslov posted:

Hey, many of the great novels of the Western canon are fanfiction. Indeed, Dante's Divine Comedy is self-insert Bible fanfiction where he and his favorite dead author go on a guided tour of the afterlives in order to save the soul of (and impress) that one girl that Dante had a creepy crush on.

Most of the King Arthur stories are of the same pedigree. There are timeless works of Classical philosophy that are lost because somebody decided to use them as a palimpsest for "How I would totally be a better knight than Gawain".

# ? Aug 29, 2014 03:52

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

RPATDO_LAMD posted:

Someone posted his OKCupid page. Somewhere on it he mentioned that he had a full-time BDSM sex slave. (I think he also said that they met through his harry potter fanfiction.)

A couple of my friends on FB follow him, and I vaguely recall one liked one of his statuses about how making his slave teach him math was "the most efficient way to turn a slave into knowledge", but I can't.

And yes, pretty sure they met via his fanfic. Which, honestly, might be one of the less creepy aspects of the relationship.

# ? Aug 29, 2014 06:59

Pavlov: Oct 21, 2012; I've long been fascinated with how the alt-right develops elaborate and obscure dog whistles to try to communicate their meaning without having to say it out loud
Stepan Andreyevich Bandera being the most prominent example of that

Less Wrong Mock Thread: Acorns can't experience courage

Spazzle posted:

I went to a Catholic wedding where the priest blamed bad weather on the gays.

Most the time Catholic priests just talk about whatever they feel like at the time. I once went to a sermon where the priest talked about Lord of the Rings the whole mass. I poo poo you not.

# ? Aug 29, 2014 22:35

Bongo Bill: Jan 17, 2012

Well, Tolkien was Catholic, and incorporated a lot of Catholic thought into his writing.

# ? Aug 30, 2014 18:31

Pavlov: Oct 21, 2012; I've long been fascinated with how the alt-right develops elaborate and obscure dog whistles to try to communicate their meaning without having to say it out loud
Stepan Andreyevich Bandera being the most prominent example of that

Bongo Bill posted:

Well, Tolkien was Catholic, and incorporated a lot of Catholic thought into his writing.

I know, but I mean, he literally just spent the entire freeform portion of the catholic mass reciting a plot synopsis like it was a parable. Like it was coming out of the loving Book of Gandalf.

What I'm trying to say is that Eliezer Yudkowsky is only slightly more awkward at speeches than my priest when I was younger.

# ? Aug 30, 2014 19:56

Cardiovorax: Jun 5, 2011; I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.

I might have enjoyed church more if this was a common thing.

# ? Aug 30, 2014 19:58

SubG: Aug 19, 2004; It's a hard world for little things.

Spazzle posted:

I went to a Catholic wedding where the priest blamed bad weather on the gays. Weddings allow shitheads to rant to a captive audience.

Man I wish being heterosexual came with superpowers too.

# ? Aug 30, 2014 21:37

su3su2u1: Apr 23, 2014

So this is basically self promotion, but I've started reading HPMOR chapter by chapter and blogging my rage.

http://su3su2u1.tumblr.com/

# ? Sep 1, 2014 20:20

Chamale: Jul 11, 2010; I'm helping!

su3su2u1 posted:

So this is basically self promotion, but I've started reading HPMOR chapter by chapter and blogging my rage.

http://su3su2u1.tumblr.com/

If I were your liver, I'd beg you to stop. I am not your liver, please review every chapter.

# ? Sep 1, 2014 20:40

Iunnrais: Jul 25, 2007; It's gaelic.

su3su2u1 posted:

So this is basically self promotion, but I've started reading HPMOR chapter by chapter and blogging my rage.

http://su3su2u1.tumblr.com/

Please continue. This is perfect. He DOES explore some rules of magic in a bit... but, again, not in a mindset of curiosity, but only in a "can I use this" sort of way. To quote the old nerd joke, he's not a mad scientist, he's just a mad engineer.

That said, when he does explore rules of magic, it's kinda fun. I just wish that's all it was. Maybe a fanfic from some random muggleborn Ravenclaw's point of view would be more interesting.

# ? Sep 1, 2014 21:38

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

A story about a curious wizard coming at magic from a different perspective and eager to explore how it interacts and works with what he or she knows about the 'mundane' world and where it breaks the rules or operates by its own while having fantastic adventures in order to do their research would be fun. HPMOR is not that.

# ? Sep 1, 2014 22:30

Franco Potente: Jul 9, 2010

Just marathoned this entire thread. Couldn't stop reading both for the bottomlessness of Yudkowsky/LessWrong insanity, and for the incredibly informative posts by people who actually know what they're talking about. As someone who is not versed in anything like formal logic or AI or anything that this thread touches upon (a lowly Lit. grad student), I was wondering if there were any books that would serve as good primers for the uninitiated? This thread has certainly piqued my interest in learning more about these topics, preferably not from a narcissistic Internet cultist.

# ? Sep 1, 2014 22:37

Tunicate: May 15, 2012

Night10194 posted:

A story about a curious wizard coming at magic from a different perspective and eager to explore how it interacts and works with what he or she knows about the 'mundane' world and where it breaks the rules or operates by its own while having fantastic adventures in order to do their research would be fun. HPMOR is not that.

I've had this recced to me for that.

# ? Sep 1, 2014 22:55

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

su3su2u1 posted:

So this is basically self promotion, but I've started reading HPMOR chapter by chapter and blogging my rage.

http://su3su2u1.tumblr.com/

The thing you point out is correct; Harry/Big Yud isn't interested in asking questions, he wants to tell you answers, and he's happy to write a fictional universe where every character will argue for his position and those who don't will be ridiculous. What you're grasping at is that Big Yud is basically writing in a style that mixes TVTropes and Ayn Rand.

# ? Sep 1, 2014 23:27

LaughMyselfTo: Nov 15, 2012; by XyloJW

Tunicate posted:

I've had this recced to me for that.

"Doctor Who + Harry Potter Crossover"

Okay, I'm out.

# ? Sep 1, 2014 23:53

ungulateman: Apr 18, 2012; pretentious fuckwit who isn't half as literate or insightful or clever as he thinks he is

LaughMyselfTo posted:

"Doctor Who + Harry Potter Crossover"

Okay, I'm out.

C'mon. Lower your standards and live a little. If you've never read a fanfic that blatantly straddles the line between embarrassing and enjoyable, you haven't lived. :unsmith:

# ? Sep 2, 2014 01:02

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

ungulateman posted:

C'mon. Lower your standards and live a little. If you've never read a fanfic that blatantly straddles the line between embarrassing and enjoyable, you haven't lived.

The world is overflowing with genuinely good writing; someone can "live a little" without lowering their standards in the slightest. Also, you're a literal autistic brony.

Sham bam bamina! fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Sep 2, 2014

# ? Sep 2, 2014 01:15

Ratoslov: Feb 15, 2012; Now prepare yourselves! You're the guests of honor at the Greatest Kung Fu Cannibal BBQ Ever!

Sham bam bamina! posted:

The world is overflowing with genuinely good writing; someone can "live a little" without lowering their standards in the slightest. Also, you're a literal autistic brony.

Please, gentlemen. We're all here for a purpose: To mock Yudkowsky and his delusions of grandeur. Can't we all just get along?

# ? Sep 2, 2014 01:20

pentyne: Nov 7, 2012

Sham bam bamina! posted:

The world is overflowing with genuinely good writing; someone can "live a little" without lowering their standards in the slightest. Also, you're a literal autistic brony.

Eh, sheer probability dictates there is genuinely well written fanfiction. Good luck finding it.

# ? Sep 2, 2014 02:00

SodomyGoat101: Nov 20, 2012

Night10194 posted:

A story about a curious wizard coming at magic from a different perspective and eager to explore how it interacts and works with what he or she knows about the 'mundane' world and where it breaks the rules or operates by its own while having fantastic adventures in order to do their research would be fun. HPMOR is not that.

So in other words, he wanted to write Wizard's Bane, but found out it had already been written.

# ? Sep 2, 2014 02:36

Lottery of Babylon: Apr 25, 2012; STRAIGHT TROPIN'

Ratoslov posted:

Please, gentlemen. We're all here for a purpose: To mock Yudkowsky and his delusions of grandeur. Can't we all just get along?

I agree, let's only make fun of the correct autistic bronies.

DataPacRat posted:

A rationalist My Little Pony fanfic

For the past two months, I've been writing, and posting, roughly two thousand words a day of "Myou've Gotta be Kidding Me", a story set in a "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" fanfic universe, "Chess Game of the Gods". Outside of the sheer NaNoWriMo-like exercise of pushing out near-daily chapters, I've also been trying to keep in mind the various principles I've learned from Yudkowsky and LessWrong, and to try to present them in a way that people who like reading MLP fanfics might be able to appreciate.

I've just come to something of a minor climax with chapter 60, and while I'll definitely be continuing the story, this seems like a good time to mention it here, for whatever feedback and constructive criticism anyone cares to offer.

magfrump posted:

Rationality Exercise: My Little Pony

Recently I started watching My Little Pony: Friendship as Magic on the recommendation of numerous friends. It has been entertaining for the most part, but in episode 15, I hit a problem.

The main character, Twilight Sparkle, is an avid intellectual, who is constantly reading and learning about the magic of the world. In episode 15, a friend of hers, Pinkie Pie, reveals a strange talent for divination: When something is about to fall, her tail twitches. Various other manifestations also exist, in excruciating detail.

Twilight Sparkle is very unhappy with this "unscientific" state of affairs. She attempts (to my delight) to do Science to Pinkie Pie, however her attempts to do Science are frustratingly foiled; in large part because her experiments ignore the nature of the phenomenon.

After watching and being frustrated by this episode, I decided that it would be more fun to come up with better experiments that would cut to the core of the issue and really investigate the subject.

My first idea was, if Pinkie Pie's tail twitches when something falls, place Pinkie Pie in a room. In a room next to her, drop things, and have someone else record her responses and timing.

Once you can reliably predict and cause tail twitches, try holding her tail still. See if, say, the rest of her body starts shaking, or the thing stops falling. See if the twitches return if she is asleep. See how far away you can make something fall and still get a reaction.

The list could continue forever! What ideas do you have? You're welcome to seek out and watch the episode, and give experiments that would apply well to Pinkie Pie in particular, or just consider the idea that someone claims that their arm twitches noticeably when something is about to fall, and has used their twitchy arm to accurately predict several falling objects for you, in an uncontrolled setting. How would you Do Science to them (assuming their full cooperation)?

EDIT: it occurred to me immediately after submitting that "Experimental design" would have been a better title beginning that "Rationality exercise," but assuming the RSS issues are unresolved I will not change it.

PhilGoetz posted:

A My Little Pony fanfic allegedly but not mainly about immortality

My Little Pony (generation 4) has 2 immortal characters, who get a lot of sympathy from the bronies. "How sad! Poor Celestia and Luna must see everyone they know grow old and die. How much better to die yourself!"

I tried to write a fanfic saying that death was bad. But I had to make it a story, and it ended up having other themes. I don't know whether I like it or not, but it was very popular (now approaching 7000 views in 3 days on fimfiction).

I was pretty sure the message "death is bad" was still in there, because Celestia says things like "Death is bad" and "I'm afraid of dying." So imagine my surprise when comment after comment said, "Yes, immortality is such a curse!"

Why did so many people come away saying that? Tell me what you think. It will help to know that Twilight regularly writes "friendship report" letters to Celestia describing what she has learned about friendship, and that Twilight and Celestia have an especially close relationship.

Please leave comments on the google doc or here on LessWrong, not on fimfiction or Equestria Daily. Please don't down-vote the story if you aren't familiar with the characters or aren't calibrated to fimfiction voting.

Mortality Report on google docs (comment-enabled), 4000 words.

Spoilers after the bar.

I can see two things that happened:

I overplayed the "death is bad" angle, to the point where readers thought Celestia wanted to die to get away from having to deal with death. These readers didn't like the story as much, because they thought she was being selfish rather than selfless.
Most readers who figured out the evolutionary plan kicked back hard and called it evil. That implied that Celestia was rationalizing very badly in agreeing to the plan in theory, and they then presumed her final actions were selfish.

iceman posted:

Friendship is Optimal: A My Little Pony fanfic about an optimization process

[EDIT, Nov 14th: And it's posted. New discussion about release. Link to Friendship is Optimal.]

[EDIT, Nov 13th: I've submitted to FIMFiction, and will update with a link to its permanent home if it passes moderation. I have also removed the docs link and will make the document private once it goes live.]

Over the last year, I�ve spent a lot of my free time writing a semi-rationalist My Little Pony fanfic. Whenever I�ve mentioned this side project, I�ve received requests to alpha the story.

I present, as an open beta: Friendship is Optimal. Please do not spread that link outside of LessWrong; Google Docs is not its permanent home. I intend to put it up on fanfiction.net and submit it to Equestria Daily after incorporating any feedback. The story is complete, and I believe I've caught the majority of typographical and grammatical problems. (Though if you find some, comments are open on the doc itself.) Given the subject matter, I�m asking for the LessWrong community�s help in spotting any major logical flaws or other storytelling problems.

Cover jacket text:

Hanna, the CEO of Hofvarpnir Studios, just won the contract to write the official My Little Pony MMO. She had better hurry; a US military contractor is developing weapons based on her artificial intelligence technology, which just may destroy the world. Hana has built an A.I. Princess Celestia and given her one basic drive: to satisfy values through friendship and ponies. What will Princess Celestia do when she�s let loose upon the world, following the drives Hanna has given her?

Special thanks to my roommate (who did extensive editing and was invaluable in noticing attempts by me to anthropomorphize an AI), and to Vaniver, who along with my roommate, convinced me to delete what was just a flat out bad chapter.

Please read and review my teletubbies fanfic about how science will upload our brains

# ? Sep 2, 2014 03:37

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

So, what is this about optimization? Is this another of their big Things?

# ? Sep 2, 2014 04:56

Lottery of Babylon: Apr 25, 2012; STRAIGHT TROPIN'

Night10194 posted:

So, what is this about optimization? Is this another of their big Things?

In a general Yudkowskyan context, optimization is why a self-improving AI is so important, since it will be the first optimization process that can improve itself and therefore something something boundless exponential gains. Yudkowsky introduces a bunch of terms he kinda sorta understands, but he doesn't do anything with them except say that AI will be so much better at everything that it will compare to our current status in much the same way that our current status compares to the universe before life itself appeared.

In the context of ponies I think it means the pony computer will set babies on fire if doing so marginally improves its efficiency or something, we'll have to rely on resident fanfiction expert and pony afficionado ungulateman to educate us there.

# ? Sep 2, 2014 07:33

Pidmon: Mar 18, 2009; NO ONE risks painful injury on your GREEN SLIME GHOST POGO RIDE.

No one but YOU.

su3su2u1 posted:

So this is basically self promotion, but I've started reading HPMOR chapter by chapter and blogging my rage.

http://su3su2u1.tumblr.com/

What tag do you use for your blogging? Because if you add /tagged/[blah blah blah]/chrono people can read in order.

# ? Sep 2, 2014 09:08

PurpleButterfly: Nov 5, 2012

It does not surprise me even one bit to learn that the writer behind Friendship is Optimal is a LessWronger. The AI version of Princess Celestia pretty much is the benevolent god-AI that Yudkowski believes is inevitable, plus she's a pony. I bet you can guess the answer to the question posed at the end of the blurb. She ultimately forces everyone in the world to have their brain uploaded into the virtual MLP-verse, since obviously it is objectively preferable to staying a regular human and having to die. :downs:

And no, I haven't actually read the fic, only the TVTropes page for it.

# ? Sep 2, 2014 13:52

su3su2u1: Apr 23, 2014

Pidmon posted:

What tag do you use for your blogging? Because if you add /tagged/[blah blah blah]/chrono people can read in order.

I added some navigation links to the top of the tumblr, one for all the MOR posts, and one for them all in chronological order.

# ? Sep 2, 2014 15:38

Ratoslov: Feb 15, 2012; Now prepare yourselves! You're the guests of honor at the Greatest Kung Fu Cannibal BBQ Ever!

Why on Earth would you use the same AI system for miltiary-grade drone weapons as for a MMO for a children's cartoon show? Why on Earth would a military AI contractor bid on the contract to construct a MMO for a children's cartoon show? I'm choking on the stupid here and I'm not even all the way through the elevator pitch. :psyduck:

Also, being forcibly 'upgraded' and 'optimized' by a 'benevolent' AI sounds absolutely horrifying.

# ? Sep 2, 2014 16:13

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

Ratoslov posted:

Also, being forcibly 'upgraded' and 'optimized' by a 'benevolent' AI sounds absolutely horrifying.

I'm pretty sure it's the plot to several sci-fi horror stories.

# ? Sep 2, 2014 16:18

Wales Grey: Jun 20, 2012

Ratoslov posted:

Why on Earth would you use the same AI system for miltiary-grade drone weapons as for a MMO for a children's cartoon show? Why on Earth would a military AI contractor bid on the contract to construct a MMO for a children's cartoon show? I'm choking on the stupid here and I'm not even all the way through the elevator pitch.

Maybe the code for the AI is open source? Grasping at straws here, but its not implausible. Just stupid.

Tiggum posted:

I'm pretty sure it's the plot to several sci-fi horror stories.

Eclipse Phase is a pretty cool settting/p&p game.

# ? Sep 2, 2014 16:44

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 4, 2024 08:36

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

You hit on the reason in your blog why Harrizer or whatevs would use persuasion as a means to prove how 'awesome' science is. It's because Big Yud desperately wishes people were predictable. He wishes being super-smart was actually a superpower and that a sufficiently intelligent super-intelligence could easily manipulate and do whatever it wished. You find this in a lot of sci-fi; the character who is superintelligent has a copy of the script and knows what the author will write next, or can easily manipulate people into doing/following whatever he or she wants. It's part of the whole 'I wish having a high IQ made me the best at EVERYTHING!' tendency you pointed out earlier.

# ? Sep 2, 2014 19:20

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > General Bullshit > The Less Wrong Mock Thread: The Big Yudkowsky

«‹›91 »