“If cryonics were a scam it would have far better marketing and be far more popular.” Quote by Eliezer Yudkowsky
“My experience is that journalists report on the nearest-cliche algorithm, which is extremely uninformative because there aren't many cliches, the truth is often quite distant from any cliche, and the only thing you can infer about the actual event was that this was the closest cliche. It is simply not possible to appreciate the sheer awfulness of mainstream media reporting until someone has actually reported on you. It is so much worse than you think.” ThinkingMediaEventsTruth IsAppreciateJournalistReportsMainstreamClosestSheerClicheAlgorithmsMainstream MediaAwfulness Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“By and large, the answer to the question "How do large institutions survive?" is "They don't!" The vast majority of large modern-day institutions - some of them extremely vital to the functioning of our complex civilization - simply fail to exist in the first place.” FirstsAnswersFailingModernCivilizationInstitutionsMajorityComplexesModern Day 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
“We underestimate the distance between ourselves and others. Not just inferential distance, but distances of temperament and ability, distances of situation and resource, distances of unspoken knowledge and unnoticed skills and luck, distances of interior landscape.” AbilitySituationSkillsResourcesLuckDistanceLandscapeUnderestimateInteriorsTemperamentUnspokenUnnoticed 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
“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
“Have I ever remarked on how completely ridiculous it is to ask high school students to decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives and give them nearly no support in doing so? Support like, say, spending a day apiece watching twenty different jobs and then another week at their top three choices, with salary charts and projections and probabilities of graduating that subject given their test scores? The more so considering this is a central allocation question for the entire economy?” WantGivingDifferentSchoolJobsChoicesThreeAsksGivenSupportEconomyWeekSubjectsStudentsHigh SchoolTestsTwentiesSpendingRidiculousScoreGraduatesConsideringProbabilitySalaryProjectionDifferent JobsAllocationHigh School StudentsTest Scores Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
“I am the constitutionally and legitimately elected sheriff, and I absolutely refuse to surrender my responsibility to the federal government.” GovernmentResponsibilityRefuseSurrenderFederal GovernmentSheriffs Author:Joe Arpaio
“Rationality is the master lifehack which distinguishes which other lifehacks to use.” UseMastersRationality 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