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Here's my anecdotal added context: I studied philosophy at Harvard from 2011-2015. I was acquainted with some of these Less Wrong Guys, all econ and CS majors, who forced me to listen to far too much Yudkowsky bullshit because they were desperate to convince me it was legitimate philosophical work.

It wasn't then, it isn't now. But these Less Wrong types, who were often genuinely STEM-smart, suffered from having grown up as the Smartest Boys in an American educational system that had decided the humanities were unprofitable and therefore useless. Less Wrong forums blew their minds bc,

having been woefully underexposed to the history of human thought, it was their first time really encountering Thought Experiments being written by other Smart Boys and Girls, and thus weren't equipped to properly contextualize or analyze them. Roko's Basilisk hits a lot harder when you've never

heard of Pascal's Wager. It also hits a lot harder when you are so convinced of your own unique intelligence that you must accept as Rational and True any argument you aren't capable of disputing yourself, despite lacking any actual training or experience in Logic or Philosophical analysis.

Love this episode with the best interpreters of the AI moment. Good debate about “sincerity”. But I think Adam and Cal should have said more about why NYT and other major business media cover AI so credulously. This isn’t just a Silicon Valley cult but a whole business culture that is dysfunctional

Been seething and screaming about this all evening after listening to most of it in pieces throughout my workday. Credulous money babies buying up dipshits who reinforce their stupid ideas or give them new ones they can claim, are the real clear and present danger. Tale as old as time.

Wondering which podcast was the one where they refused to pull up AI 2027 lol. That's gonna be a fun watch, one of my favorite things is seeing boosters come into contact with observable reality, like that awful diary of a CEO interview.

Watched it and wow that was an underwhelming performance considering the other hosts were literally insane. There's no need to be giving air to people who say things like "they started out fighting WW2 like WW1". Idiots. Ah well, it happens.