“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
“By far the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.” PeopleDangerArtificial IntelligenceArtificial 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
“Most Muggles lived in a world defined by the limits of what you could do with cars and telephones. Even though Muggle physics explicitly permitted possibilities like molecular nanotechnology or the Penrose process for extracting energy from black holes, most people filed that away in the same section of their brain that stored fairy tales and history books, well away from their personal realities: Long ago and far away, ever so long ago.” PeopleWorldWellsLongBookRealityEnergyProcessBlackBrainCarPossibilityLimitsPhysicsHolesTalesDefinedFairyFairy TaleFar AwayLong AgoSectionsTelephonesBlack HoleHistory BooksNanotechnologyMuggles Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Crocker's Rules didn't give you the right to say anything offensive, but other people could say potentially offensive things to you, and it was your responsibility not to be offended. This was surprisingly hard to explain to people; many people would read the careful explanation and hear, "Crocker's Rules mean you can say offensive things to other people."” PeopleGivingMeanHardResponsibilityCarefulExplanationOffensiveSay AnythingOffended 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
“The people I know who seem to make unusual efforts at rationality, are unusually honest, or, failing that, at least have unusually bad social skills.” PeopleKnowsSeemsSocialEffortFailingHonestSkillsUnusualRationalitySocial Skills Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Maybe you just can't protect people from certain specialized types of folly with any sane amount of regulation, and the correct response is to give up on the high social costs of inadequately protecting people from themselves under certain circumstances.” PeopleGivingCertainSocialTypeAmountCircumstancesCostProtectGiving UpResponseFollyRegulationSane 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
“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
“Through rationality we shall become awesome, and invent and test systematic methods for making people awesome, and plot to optimize everything in sight, and the more fun we have the more people will want to join us.” PeopleWantFunTestsSightMethodPlotRationalitySystematic 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
“Why does any kind of cynicism appeal to people? Because it seems like a mark of maturity, of sophistication, like you’ve seen everything and know better. Or because putting something down feels like pushing yourself up.” PeopleKnowsFeelsKindDoeSeemsLike YouMarkAppealsMaturityPushingCynicismSophisticationPush Yourself Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Boys," said Hermione Granger, "should not be allowed to love girls without asking them first! This is true in a number of ways and especially when it comes to gluing people to the ceiling!” PeopleWayShouldFirstsSaidGirlNumbersBoysAskingCeilingsHermione Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“What people really believe doesn't feel like a BELIEF, it feels like the way the world IS.” PeopleWorldWayFeelsBelieveBelief Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“Not every change is an improvement but every improvement is a change; you can't do anything BETTER unless you can manage to do it DIFFERENTLY, you've got to let yourself do better than other people!” PeopleImprovementManage Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“You will find ambiguity a great ally on your road to power. Give a sign of Slytherin on one day, and contradict it with a sign of Gryffindor the next; and the Slytherins will be enabled to believe what they wish, while the Gryffindors argue themselves into supporting you as well. So long as there is uncertainty, people can believe whatever seems to be to their own advantage. And so long as you appear strong, so long as you appear to be winning, their instincts will tell them that their advantage lies with you. Walk always in the shadow, and light and darkness both will follow.” PeopleGivingBelieveWellsLongLightSeemsLyingNextWinningStrongWishWalksDarknessOne DayShadowAdvantageInstinctArguingUncertaintyAlliesAmbiguityLight And DarknessGryffindor 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
“[...] 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
