“Intelligence is the source of technology. If we can use technology to improve intelligence, that closes the loop and potentially creates a positive feedback cycle.” IfsUseTechnologySourceCyclesFeedbackLoopsPositive Feedback Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“The purest case of an intelligence explosion would be an Artificial Intelligence rewriting its own source code. The key idea is that if you can improve intelligence even a little, the process accelerates. It's a tipping point. Like trying to balance a pen on one end - as soon as it tilts even a little, it quickly falls the rest of the way.” IfsWayTryingLittlesIdeasEndsWould BeFallProcessCasesSourceKeysBalanceCodePensArtificial IntelligenceArtificialExplosionsAccelerateRewritingTippingTiltTipping Point 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
“If you've been cryocrastinating, putting off signing up for cryonics "until later", don't think that you've "gotten away with it so far". Many worlds, remember? There are branched versions of you that are dying of cancer, and not signed up for cryonics, and it's too late for them to get life insurance.” IfsThinkingWorldRememberDyingLateCancerVersionsToo LateSigningSigning Up Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“If cryonics were a scam it would have far better marketing and be far more popular.” IfsMarketingScams Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“If I'm teaching deep things, then I view it as important to make people feel like they're learning deep things, because otherwise, they will still have a hole in their mind for "deep truths" that needs filling, and they will go off and fill their heads with complete nonsense that has been written in a more satisfying style.” PeopleIfsNeedsFeelsMindHas BeensStillsImportantViewsWrittenTeachingStyleHolesNonsenseSatisfyingFillingDeep Things Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“If you want to build a recursively self-improving AI, have it go through a billion sequential self-modifications, become vastly smarter than you, and not die, you've got to work to a pretty precise standard.” IfsWantSelfDiesStandardsBillionsSmarterImprovingPreciseModification Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Litmus test: If you can't describe Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage and explain why people find it counterintuitive, you don't know enough about economics to direct any criticism or praise at "capitalism" because you don't know what other people are referring to when they use that word.” PeopleIfsKnowsEnoughUseLawCapitalismAdvantageEconomicsDirectCriticismTestsPraiseReferringComparative Advantage 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
“You cannot rationalize what is not rational to begin with - as if lying were called truthization. There is no way to obtain more truth for a proposition by bribery, flattery, or the most passionate argument - you can make more people believe the proposition, but you cannot make it more true.” PeopleIfsWayBelieveLyingArgumentPassionateRationalPropositionsFlatteryRationalizeBribery Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“If you want to maximize your expected utility, you try to save the world and the future of intergalactic civilization instead of donating your money to the society for curing rare diseases and cute puppies.” IfsWorldWantTryingCivilizationDiseaseExpectedCuteUtilityPuppySave The WorldCute PuppyRare Diseases Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“If dragons were common, and you could look at one in the zoo - but zebras were a rare legendary creature that had finally been decided to be mythical - then there's a certain sort of person who would ignore dragons, who would never bother to look at dragons, and chase after rumors of zebras. The grass is always greener on the other side of reality. Which is rather setting ourselves up for eternal disappointment, eh? If we cannot take joy in the merely real, our lives shall be empty indeed.” IfsLooksPersonsRealRealityJoyCertainSidesCommonOur LivesCreaturesEternalEmptyDecidedDisappointmentSettingSettingsBotherGrassDragonsRumorZoosLegendaryGreenerZebrasGrass Is Always GreenerGreener On The Other Side Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“If you handed [character] a glass that was 90% full, he'd tell you that the 10% empty part proved that no one really cared about water.” IfsCharacterWaterEmptyGlasses Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Our coherent extrapolated volition is our wish if we knew more, thought faster, were more the people we wished we were, had grown up farther together; where the extrapolation converges rather than diverges, where our wishes cohere rather than interfere; extrapolated as we wish that extrapolated, interpreted as we wish that interpreted.” PeopleIfsTogetherWishFasterInterfereVolition Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Remember, if you succeed in everything you try in life, you're living below your full potential and you should take up more difficult or daring things.” IfsShouldTryingRememberDifficultSucceedDaringFull Potential Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Your strength as a rationalist is your ability to be more confused by fiction than by reality. If you are equally good at explaining any outcome, you have zero knowledge.” IfsRealityAbilityFictionOutcomesConfusedZeroExplaining Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“I'm wondering if there's a spell to make lightning flash in the background whenever I make an ominous resolution.” IfsWonderBackgroundsResolutionSpellsFlashLightningOminous Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“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
“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
“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
“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
