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Hacker NewsGuess I'm a Rationalist Now<a href="https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8908" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8908</a><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/HackerNews" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#HackerNews</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Rationalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Rationalism</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Rationalist</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Thinking" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Thinking</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Philosophy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Philosophy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/HackerNews" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#HackerNews</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Blog" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Blog</a>

Steve Dustcircle 🌹Guess I’m A <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/Rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Rationalist</a> Now<a href="https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8908" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8908</a><a href="https://masto.ai/tags/reason" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#reason</a> <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/rationalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalism</a>

Nuki Raccoon: The DEI Program of Furry EroticaMy friend says their husband "wants to crawl inside Eliezer Yudkowsky's butthole" and I don't know what else to say other than my condolences. :sadcowboy:I guess the Yudd-Hole is like, a nice place to be? Maybe there's like, a <a href="https://yiff.life/tags/Rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Rationalist</a> night club in there? Maybe it's a cozy nook for reading scifi-fantasy stories?<a href="https://yiff.life/tags/EliezerYudkowskysButthole" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#EliezerYudkowskysButthole</a>

h o ʍ l e t t→ They wanted to save us from a dark AI future. Then six people were <a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/killed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#killed</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence</a>“Rationalists had considerable <a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/openness" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#openness</a> to new experiences, but sometimes poor discipline or <a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/judgment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#judgment</a>, and could embody the old joke about being so open-minded that one’s brain falls out […]”“It goes without saying that the <a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/AI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AI</a>-risk and <a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a> communities are not morally responsible for the <a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/Zizians" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Zizians</a> any more than any <a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/movement" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#movement</a> is accountable for a deranged fringe.”<a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/future" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#future</a> <a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/brain" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#brain</a>

Koantig"Behind the Bastards" has a 4-parter on the Zizians but really it also acts as a good primer on rationalists et al. if you've never heard of them.First episode: <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/behind-the-bastards/part-one-the-zizians-how-harry-potter-fanfic-inspi" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://omny.fm/shows/behind-the-bastards/part-one-the-zizians-how-harry-potter-fanfic-inspi</a>RSS: <a href="https://www.omnycontent.com/d/playlist/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/e5f91208-cc7e-4726-a312-ae280140ad11/d64f756d-6d5e-4fae-b24f-ae280140ad36/podcast.rss" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.omnycontent.com/d/playlist/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/e5f91208-cc7e-4726-a312-ae280140ad11/d64f756d-6d5e-4fae-b24f-ae280140ad36/podcast.rss</a><a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/podcast" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#podcast</a> <a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/ConseilPodcast" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ConseilPodcast</a> <a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a> <a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/tescreal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#tescreal</a> <a href="https://mamot.fr/tags/behindTheBastards" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#behindTheBastards</a>

Steve Dustcircle 🌹In <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/Reason" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Reason</a> We TrustFor many of us in the <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a> and <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/humanist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#humanist</a> community, the focus on how we define ourselves often falls on the difference between developing and upholding the <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/rationalmind" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalmind</a> versus <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/religious" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#religious</a> tendencies towards bias or inference. This does not mean <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/freethinkers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#freethinkers</a> are not impacted by our own <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/biases" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#biases</a> and inferences– we accept them and are aware of them.<a href="https://thehumanist.com/commentary/in-reason-we-trust" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://thehumanist.com/commentary/in-reason-we-trust</a>

Ontploffing BoerThis year's <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a> <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/fanfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#fanfic</a> exchange has posted all the fics now! <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/collections/RatFicEx2024/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://archiveofourown.org/collections/RatFicEx2024/</a>There's an interesting mix of fandoms: half OC, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/Myst" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Myst</a>, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/dungeon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#dungeon</a> stories, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/FullmetalAlchemist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FullmetalAlchemist</a>, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/mecha" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#mecha</a>, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/creepypasta" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#creepypasta</a>, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/TimeTravel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#TimeTravel</a>, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/PTSD" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#PTSD</a>, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/transformation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#transformation</a>, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/tf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#tf</a>, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/Thor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Thor</a>, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/OuterWilds" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#OuterWilds</a>, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/Naruto" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Naruto</a>, and <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/Animorphs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Animorphs</a>

Gregorius AdvenaI am often called a critic of <a href="https://mastodon.sdf.org/tags/religion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#religion</a>, but rather in the superficial way of those who misconstrue dialectical analysis as blaming. Never have I advocated for a world without religion, nor for a <a href="https://mastodon.sdf.org/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a> crusade against it. <a href="https://mastodon.sdf.org/tags/philosophy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#philosophy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.sdf.org/tags/GregoriusAdvena" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GregoriusAdvena</a>

Lalit PatnaikWhat is right vs who is right"A <a href="https://mastodon.cloud/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a> is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right." ~Karl Popper<a href="https://mastodon.cloud/tags/rationalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalism</a>

waxbanksthinking this morning about the <a href="https://heads.social/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a>-to-<a href="https://heads.social/tags/AI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AI</a>-doomer-cult pipeline offering a program of‘negative <a href="https://heads.social/tags/enchantment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#enchantment</a>’spiritual exercises dressed as cognitive cleansing routines, inducing paranoid terror at prospect of evil gods emerging. everything is either harbinger or irrelevance. price of entry to vivid (faintly stupid) shared fantasy is recitation of jargon-stuffed Just So Stories and mantras. IQ-phrenology akin to flat-earth nonsense.socially maladapted midwit dilettante gaggle. ugh.

Dr Annetta MallonReligious abuse

William GunnReading this and thinking about the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/yimby" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#yimby</a> arguments for increased density. Man as a <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Rationalist</a> Animal – sam[ ]zdat <a href="https://samzdat.com/2017/05/22/man-as-a-rationalist-animal/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://samzdat.com/2017/05/22/man-as-a-rationalist-animal/</a>

David Golumbiabut i should add: by FAR the dominant position among rationalists about <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/AI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AI</a> is accelerationist: we should build it as powerfully and as fast as we can, & somehow that will show us how to mitigate the dangers. which is why virtually none of the <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a> AI "leaders" have signed the petition, or are likely to sign it.this break in that edifice seems notable to me, & worth amplifying.

David Golumbiato be clear, the concerns about large <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/AI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AI</a> models laid out by the drafters of the Future of Life petition are largely not the ones I have. & Future of Life is a <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a>/#transhumanist project with very unpleasant roots & associations. but many non-rationalists have signed the petition, & I don't care that some of the language is typical AI hype. serious regulation of this sector is needed, & a pause in development risks virtually nothing of value & will hopefully spur regulators to action.

David Golumbianearly every popular (to say nothing of <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a>) discussion of <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/ChatGPT" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ChatGPT</a>, <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/GPT4" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GPT4</a>, <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/OpenAI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#OpenAI</a>, etc., features a huge amount of prevarication over these concepts, constantly suggesting that they are the same: that "mind" is more or less just a synonym for "intelligence" (while almost never noting that most experts do not agree with it at all). it isn't, & those who say it is have various kinds of agendas & axes to grind. <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/AGI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AGI</a> <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/AI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AI</a>

Strangers on the InternetFor <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/presidentsday" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#presidentsday</a> we give you a bonus episode with George Mason University constitutional law scholar Prof. Ilya Somin, who used his scholarly chops to develop a <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a> approach to <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/dating" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#dating</a> and ultimately finding <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/love" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#love</a>. He shares his wisdom about how to cope with <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/rejection" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rejection</a> while trying to meet a mate, plan <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/dates" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#dates</a>, and remain open-minded (did he really agree to a first date at <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/arlingtonnationalcemetery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#arlingtonnationalcemetery</a>??). Come hear about Ilya’s journey that happily led to his wife Alison! 🤓🥰

Frank D (he/him)<a href="https://mastodon.social/@introvertnudist" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@introvertnudist</a> you are literally the first person to have recognized one of my <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/sigils" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#sigils</a> for what they are without me having to explain it to them. LOL I'm a pretty <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a>, <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/science" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#science</a> minded guy... but I love the idea of magic, I always play wizards in RPGs, etc. Then one day I ran across chaos magic and what stuck with me is that what's "real" is immaterial, so long as it's effective. I immediately had the idea for this <a href="https://fosstodon.org/tags/tattoo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#tattoo</a>.

RaiAbout to leave <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/prague" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#prague</a> today, on my way back to SF. It was really nice to drop by Europe again, especially to see my <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/furry" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#furry</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a> friends in <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Berlin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Berlin</a>. Last day or two I've been just chilling in Prague, hanging out in local tea rooms/cafes and being a pretentious hipster public intellectual. I'll miss the vibe. But I'm hoping to take some of all this cool energy and use it to find more nice chill spaces and people in SF and to get lots of good vibes, cuddles and caring :)

Acausal Robot GodPerhaps I should swing for the fences: no rational numbers can be probabilities. They're of measure zero, there's no way you just happen to come across 2/7 when you finish that integral. <a href="https://jorts.horse/tags/bayes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#bayes</a> <a href="https://jorts.horse/tags/bayesian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#bayesian</a> <a href="https://jorts.horse/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a> <a href="https://jorts.horse/tags/probability" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#probability</a>

Acausal Robot GodOther <a href="https://jorts.horse/tags/rationalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#rationalist</a> visionaries lack imagination -- they try to say that 0 and 1 are not probabilities, but this is not bold enough. I propose that 0.5 is also not a probability. <a href="https://jorts.horse/tags/reason" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#reason</a> <a href="https://jorts.horse/tags/probability" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#probability</a> <a href="https://jorts.horse/tags/bayes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#bayes</a> <a href="https://jorts.horse/tags/bayesian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#bayesian</a> <a href="https://jorts.horse/tags/basilisk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#basilisk</a>

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