"mere rationality"? I can tell you do not value reason as much as the average scientist (or technocrat). I wouldn't say the average human being is crazy, but I do agree with his idea that what currently counts as sane is set by a very low bar.
It was a 20 minute talk, so I guess some details got left out (this is consistent with his personality, I have read his website/blog for years, he is very exacting).
I have heard also that yudkowsky is too condescending. I've never met him but now I believe it a little more.
I certainly value reason of the sort that scientists do--in fact, I am a scientist by training. But I also value reason of a different sort: the kind that is value-laden, that most scientists explicitly claim is irrational and yet use anyway, in an impoverished form, in their everyday discourse. The scattered attempts at reviving utilitarianism evident in this summit (e.g. Anna Salamon's talk) are but one example.
I certainly won't disagree that people make a lot of very poor and senseless decisions, particularly on a societal and global level. But the sort of hyper-rational project that Yudkowsky, Salomon, and the like want to institute was shown by philosophers decades ago to be impossible. And the continued pursuit of a project that is both incoherent and uninterested in engaging with human cultural and social values does far more harm than good.
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"mere rationality"? I can tell you do not value reason as much as the average scientist (or technocrat). I wouldn't say the average human being is crazy, but I do agree with his idea that what currently counts as sane is set by a very low bar.
It was a 20 minute talk, so I guess some details got left out (this is consistent with his personality, I have read his website/blog for years, he is very exacting).
I have heard also that yudkowsky is too condescending. I've never met him but now I believe it a little more.
I certainly value reason of the sort that scientists do--in fact, I am a scientist by training. But I also value reason of a different sort: the kind that is value-laden, that most scientists explicitly claim is irrational and yet use anyway, in an impoverished form, in their everyday discourse. The scattered attempts at reviving utilitarianism evident in this summit (e.g. Anna Salamon's talk) are but one example.
I certainly won't disagree that people make a lot of very poor and senseless decisions, particularly on a societal and global level. But the sort of hyper-rational project that Yudkowsky, Salomon, and the like want to institute was shown by philosophers decades ago to be impossible. And the continued pursuit of a project that is both incoherent and uninterested in engaging with human cultural and social values does far more harm than good.