Almost all are avowedly committed to the ideals of tolerance, pluralism, and diversity in faith; if you were to say that a belief system should be dismissed simply because it is essentially religious in nature in essentially any other context, they would be some of the loudest voices speaking out against you. So why should TESCREAL be any different? Why is it that religion as a whole is fine, but not this religion?

Because a religion passing itself off as scientific is a bad thing? Just spitballin' here.

The Singularity (of hating that we know what those words mean) Is Near

Mastodon has Reply Guys. Lemmy has Cater To Me Whilst I Am Literally, Not Figuratively, Taking a Shit Guys.

"Computational complexity does not work that way!" is one of those TESCREAL-zone topics that I wish I had better reading recommendations for.

It's fun to stand on the shoulders of giants... and having the standard stuff down cold is the best way to convince experts that when you do have a zany idea, it might be worth considering.

It’s not worth explaining because it’s stupid, but Roko’s conclusion was

(jazzy finger-snaps of approval)

I suspect that this is less about using language with which one's audience is familiar to convey a message accurately, and more about making the message sound obviously right and affirming the smartness of the audience because Computer Words.

I'm disappointed that they never (to my knowledge) tried to justify the purchase by saying they needed a castle to build a fortified base that would be safe against marauders in the event of civilizational collapse. The return on investment for keeping a catastrophic failure from becoming an existential one is (handwave, handwave) at least 10^69.

"We need a castle for Isaac Asimov's Foundation Beyond Thunderdome" would, at least, be on brand.

I just can't respect a man who is posturing and arrogant yet still fails to go for the phrasing "to whom you are speaking".

The opening line is... certainly a phrase.

I have been working on a research project into the scale, tractability and neglectedness of child marriage.

Later:

Some studies even showed that child marriage was associated with more positive outcomes, such as higher contraceptive use

Ummmmmmmmmm

I think of myself as playing the role of a wise old mentor who has had lots of experience, telling stories to the young adventurers, trying to toughen them up, somewhat similar to how Prof Quirrell[8] toughens up the students in HPMOR through teaching them Defense Against the Dark Arts

[8] Note that during our conversation, Emerson brought up HPMOR and the Quirrell similarity, not me.

epistemic status: jesus fucking christ, what is your major malfunction?!