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I've never thought ill of Scott Aaronson and have often admired him and his work when I stumble across it. However, reading this article about all these people
by gooseus 1y ago
I've never thought ill of Scott Aaronson and have often admired him and his work when I stumble across it.
However, reading this article about all these people at their "Galt's Gultch", I thought — "oh, I guess he's a rhinoceros now"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros_(play) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros_(play)
Here's a bad joke for you all — What's the difference between a "rationalist" and "rationalizer"? Only the incentives.
- dcminter 1y agoUpvote for the play link - that's interesting and I hadn't heard of it before. Worthy of a top-level post IMO.
- gooseus 1y agoI heard of the play originally from Chapter 10 of On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder: https://archive.org/details/on-tyranny-twenty-lessons-from-the-twentieth-century-by-timothy-snyder-z-lib.org/page/n35/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/on-tyranny-twenty-lessons-from-t... Which I did post top-level here on November 7th - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42071791 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42071791 Unfortunately it didn't a lot of traction and dang told me that there wasn't a way to re-up or "second chance" the post due to the HN policy on posts "correlated with political conflict".
- dcminter 1y agoAh, I guess I see his point; I can't see the discussion being about use of metaphor in political fiction rather than whose team is worst. Still, I'm glad I now know the reference.
- NoGravitas 1y agoI have always considered Scott Aaronson the least bad of the big-name rationalists. Which makes it slightly funny that he didn't realize he was one until Scott Siskind told him he was.
- wizzwizz4 1y agoReminds me of Simone de Beauvoir and feminism. She wrote the book on (early) feminism, yet didn't consider herself a feminist until much later.
- DrNosferatu 1y ago«What's the difference between a "rationalist" and "rationalizer"? Only the incentives.» Bad joke? That phrase should be framed in big print.