“If the iron is hot, I desire to believe it is hot, and if it is cool, I desire to believe it is cool.” IfsBelieveDesireHotIron Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Between hindsight bias, fake causality, positive bias, anchoring/priming, et cetera et cetera, and above all the dreaded confirmation bias, once an idea gets into your head, it's probably going to stay there.” IdeasFakeBiasHindsightConfirmationCausality Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“The strength of a theory is not what it allows, but what it prohibits; if you can invent an equally persuasive explanation for any outcome, you have zero knowledge.” IfsTheoryExplanationOutcomesZeroPersuasive Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“The police officer who puts their life on the line with no superpowers, no X-Ray vision, no super-strength, no ability to fly, and above all no invulnerability to bullets, reveals far greater virtue than Superman - who is only a mere superhero.” LinesAbilityVisionVirtueGreaterPoliceMereOfficersRaysBulletsSuperheroPolice OfficerSuperpowerInvulnerability Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“If people got hit on the head by a baseball bat every week, pretty soon they would invent reasons why getting hit on the head with a baseball bat was a good thing.” PeopleIfsReasonWeekBaseballGood ThingsReason WhyBats Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“There are no surprising facts, only models that are surprised by facts; and if a model is surprised by the facts, it is no credit to that model.” IfsFactsModelsCreditSurprising Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Science has heroes, but no gods. The great Names are not our superiors, or even our rivals, they are passed milestones on our road; and the most important milestone is the hero yet to come.” ImportantNamesHeroSuperiorsRivalsMilestone Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“You are personally responsible for becoming more ethical than the society you grew up in.” GrewBecomingGrew UpResponsibleEthicalBecoming More Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Do not flinch from experiences that might destroy your beliefs. The thought you cannot think controls you more than thoughts you speak aloud. Submit yourself to ordeals and test yourself in fire. Relinquish the emotion which rests upon a mistaken belief, and seek to feel fully that emotion which fits the facts.” ThinkingFeelsFactsMightBeliefSpeakEmotionFireFitTestsSubmitMistakenOrdeals Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“I ask the fundamental question of rationality: Why do you believe what you believe? What do you think you know and how do you think you know it?” ThinkingKnowsBelieveAsksFundamentalsRationalityYou Think You Know Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Moore's Law of Mad Science: Every eighteen months, the minimum IQ necessary to destroy the world drops by one point.” WorldLawScienceProgressMonthsMadIntellectDestroyingMinimumDroppingProgressionEighteenFunny ScienceMad ScientistMoore's Law Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“I am tempted to say that a doctorate in AI would be negatively useful, but I am not one to hold someone’s reckless youth against them – just because you acquired a doctorate in AI doesn’t mean you should be permanently disqualified.” ShouldMeanWould BeYouthTemptedRecklessDoctorates Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“If you don’t sign up your kids for cryonics then you are a lousy parent.” IfsKidsParent Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“After all, if you had the complete decision process, you could run it as an AI, and I'd be coding it up right now.” IfsRunningProcessDecisionRight Now Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“If you are equally good at explaining any outcome, you have zero knowledge.” IfsOutcomesZeroExplaining Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“[...] intelligent people only have a certain amount of time (measured in subjective time spent thinking about religion) to become atheists. After a certain point, if you're smart, have spent time thinking about and defending your religion, and still haven't escaped the grip of Dark Side Epistemology, the inside of your mind ends up as an Escher painting.” PeopleIfsThinkingMindStillsEndsCertainSidesDarkHavensPaintingAmountSmartIntelligentAtheistSubjectiveDark SideEpistemologyTime SpentEscher Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“This is one of theprimary mechanisms whereby, if a fool says the sun is shining, we do notcorrectly discard this as irrelevant nonevidence, but rather find ourselvesimpelled to say that it must be dark outside.” IfsDarkSunFoolShiningMechanismIrrelevant Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“He'd met other prodigies in mathematical competitions. In fact he'd been thoroughly trounced by competitors who probably spent literally all day practising maths problems and who'd never read a science-fiction book and who would burn out completely before puberty and never amount to anything in their future lives because they'd just practised known techniques instead of learning to think creatively.” ThinkingBookFactsProblemFictionKnownAmountMetsScience FictionCompetitionMathTechniqueMathematicalCompetitorsPubertyBurn OutFuture LifeProdigiesMath Problems Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Singularitarians are the munchkins of the real world. We just ignore all the usual dungeons and head straight for the cycle of infinite wish spells.” WorldRealWishInfiniteCyclesSpellsReal WorldUsualDungeons Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
