“I keep trying to explain to people that the archetype of intelligence is not Dustin Hoffman in 'The Rain Man;' it is a human being, period. It is squishy things that explode in a vacuum, leaving footprints on their moon.” PeopleMenTryingHumansHuman BeingsPeriodsMoonRainLeavingVacuumsKeep TryingFootprintArchetype Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“When you think of intelligence, don't think of a college professor; think of human beings as opposed to chimpanzees. If you don't have human intelligence, you're not even in the game.” IfsThinkingHumansGamesHuman BeingsCollegeProfessorsChimpanzeesHuman IntelligenceCollege Professors Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“We tend to see individual differences instead of human universals. Thus, when someone says the word 'intelligence,' we think of Einstein instead of humans.” ThinkingHumansIndividualDifferencesIndividual Differences Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Since the rise of Homo sapiens, human beings have been the smartest minds around. But very shortly - on a historical scale, that is - we can expect technology to break the upper bound on intelligence that has held for the last few tens of thousands of years.” YearsMindHumansHas BeensLastsHuman BeingsBreakTechnologyHistoricalBoundsScalesHomo Sapiens Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“There's a popular concept of 'intelligence' as book smarts, like calculus or chess, as opposed to, say, social skills. So people say that 'it takes more than intelligence to succeed in human society.' But social skills reside in the brain, not the kidneys.” PeopleHumansBookSocialBrainSucceedSkillsSmartConceptsChessHuman SocietyCalculusKidneysSocial Skills Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“The human brain cannot release enough neurotransmitters to feel emotion a thousand times as strong as the grief of one funeral. A prospective risk going from 10,000,000 deaths to 100,000,000 deaths does not multiply by ten the strength of our determination to stop it. It adds one more zero on paper for our eyes to glaze over.” FeelsHumansDoeEnoughEyeStrongGriefEmotionBrainRiskThousandTenPaperDeterminationAddReleaseZeroFuneralHuman BrainNeurotransmitters Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Physiologically adult humans are not meant to spend an additional 10 years in a school system; their brains map that onto "I have been assigned low tribal status". And so, of course, they plot rebellion - accuse the existing tribal overlords of corruption plot, perhaps to split off their own little tribe in the savanna, not realizing that this is impossible in the Modern World.” WorldYearsHumansLittlesHas BeensSchoolCoursesRealizingBrainImpossibleModernLowsAdultsCorruptionPlotMapsRebellionSplitsTribesModern WorldSchool SystemSavanna Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“It is triple ultra forbidden to respond to criticism with violence. There are a very few injunctions in the human art of rationality that have no ifs, ands, buts, or escape clauses. This is one of them. Bad argument gets counterargument. Does not get bullet. Never. Never ever never for ever.” IfsHumansDoeArtPhilosophyViolenceArgumentCriticismBulletsRationalityForbiddenClausesUltrasCounterarguments Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Every mystery ever solved had been a puzzle from the dawn of the human species right up until someone solved it.” HumansMysterySpeciesDawnPuzzlesHuman Species Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
