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professorgerm

a weird little beardo trying to understand what it's all about

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joined 2022 September 12 12:41:49 UTC 

				
User ID: 1157


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
professorgerm


								
								
									
								
								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
a weird little beardo trying to understand what it's all about

				
				
				

				

					3 followers  

					follows 1 user  

					joined 2022 September 12 12:41:49 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 1157


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
fascinating! til


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


As far as I know Aella is just a normal prostitute/internet-celebrity who happens to also be interested in LessWrong stuff and do internet surveys.




She also runs Plzdontkillus, an experimental creator camp on AI risk hosted at Lighthaven (man, EAs/Rats have a bad track record with actually owning locations playing poorly for them), funded by MIRI (another Yud connection) and co-run with Ronnie Fernandez, ex-husband of Holly Elmore of Pause AI US (who went a bit crazy during/after the divorce and deeply hates Aella).


She's very interconnected with the Bay Arean EA/Rat community, and the long-termers of the community circle the wagons when she comes under scrutiny.




"Are you under the impression Eliezer is sleeping with Aella?"




I mean... Not really, but they'll make overtly sexual memes for donations, so it's easy to see how someone gets that idea.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Also the least-central person on that list, and not in the Bay Area.


"View you less" might be a little strong. "Consider you less open-minded and thus less trustworthy on certain dimensions" is more plausible, though I think very few would be explicit about that like John Wentworth was




Also I personally absolutely do upgrade my assessment of someone's AI alignment qualifications if I find out they go to RMN.




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


By now Brent is well-known as a sex pest, and while I unfortunately expect future abuser revelations, they seem less common.




Brent, and Worst Boyfriend Ever, edit: John Wenworth is on the outs though that seems to be more for writing than behavior /endedit, and how many others that are less famous and just kept on a member's-only list of missing stairs?




The EA leaders are parodying themselves by maintaining Caroline Ellison




Felons have fewer options so she can be paid less, ergo, more effective per dollar. Classic EA!




I think they've stopped associating with their people.




Isn't Scott still housemates with Kelsey, EA journalist extraordinaire?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


But a liberal stance on sexuality (roughly "what consenting adults do in their bedrooms is their business")




That is a liberal stance on sexuality; it is not the predominant sexual stance of American liberals. Edit: to clarify, "consent" is a godforsaken shitshow and what people are allowed to do in their bedrooms depends heavily on the identity, age (gap), specific behaviors, whether the woman changes her mind weeks or months later, whether the behavior affects the treatment of other women (this here is why SlutCon and the CNC thing generated so much outrage, despite all being theoretically- ha- consenting adults), etc etc.




the top 1000 rationalists all had had sex with each other (gender attraction permitting).




I find it fascinating that everyone reaches for big numbers here, or say things like "the vast majority of EAs aren't (sexual weirdos)." 950 of the top 1000 don't matter, and that remaining 50 are all married, in poly relationships, work together, live together, hire each other or their family members' for each others' boards, etc.




Instead, I would assume that some of them are asexual, monogamous or even celibate.




Scott used to identify as asexual but he has two kids. I don't think it's accidental though that there likely is disproportionate numbers of asexual and poly.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Aella using her area of exertise to try to help on AI alignment




lol. lmao even. what a polite turn of phrase. you win.


edit:




Nor do I think that the lifestyle choices of the center of LW matter much




"this group has insane and bad moral preferences" does not mesh well with "this group believes they are likely to be setting the morality of the light cone."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
tb"f" i would assume that's the standard jewish view, and while yud isn't the most orthodox now iirc he was raised more Orthodox than 95+% of secular jews in this social orbit.


that is, of all the people i'd expect to wave that flag, this one should be suprising.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Being a polycule member who occasionally partakes in orgies is not mentioned as a problem, because the original target audience didn't really care.




Scott also thinks, or thought at some point back when we were still on reddit- 2018ish, maybe?- that other meaningful audiences wouldn't care.


It was one of my few direct interactions with him, after one of the many rounds of Poly Discourse in the community, where I suggested something along the lines of "if you want to influence public morality more broadly re: EA/AI, reducing the visibility of this will save you weirdness points with a lot of the public." His response- this is paraphrase is probably slightly more negative than the original, colored by time as it is- was something like "no, it's the people that suggest that are a worse expense of weirdness among populations we want to reach."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I think the demand for stories of male rapists outstrips the supply.




The demand for degenerate tales of upper-class white-passing male rapists where one can feed the Narrative about sexual assault at college outstrips supply.


Degenerate tales of poor rapists with poor victims are a dime a dozen but "woman gets wrecked with her dealer who then assaults her" isn't as fun for thinkpiece generators.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


YMMV, I just want to make sure @FiveHourMarathon doesn't have expectations falsely raised and then shattered. ;-)




Haha definitely fair.


I was surprised by my ability to operate on very little sleep and short naps (even at 31) and I shouldn't overgeneralize from that!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Congratulations! The newborn stage was way more fun than I expected.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I have to admit that this is a pretty weird verse to cite. It's not particularly relevent to anything mentioned in the announcement




Thanks to Schindler's List, the edited version that doesn't specify Jews is possibly the most famous verse that isn't one of the commandments. Could just be part of him playing the media game and knowing what's popular.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
UK diesel prices at all-time high, I'd imagine easy enough to fence if you're in the right communities.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 21, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


the rootclaim debate and Scott Alexander pointed out, an accidental release just happening to point to the wet market is incredibly odd too.




The drunkard and the stoplight come to mind, (edit:) in addition to the other explanations others provided.




lack of proof doesn't matter




Any proof is filtered through a hostile state actor, so my real preference is that the whole debate is stupid, from all given knowledge it might as well be a coinflip, and it's much more concerning that all of Western media went anti-free-speech batshit (ha) over it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 21, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


wouldn't we expect diseases to form almost exclusively in places like India or Africa where density is high and medical treatment is poor?




India did give us NDM-1, but from antibiotic overuse.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 21, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


If one very seriously believes that the world was attacked by an artificial bioweapon (even if unintentionally leaked)




There's also "non-engineered lab leak theory," that the place that actively collects coronaviruses and has had safety issues in the past accidentally leaked (another?) one. I find this much more plausible than the sheer volume of coincidences that require it to be wet market a few blocks away or the actively engineered version.


Wet market theory strikes me as motivated reasoning by people too smart for their own good.




This is a matter of major national security now, and the most anyone wants to do is shitpost about it?




well tbf for a few years talking about it would get you banned from most social media and possibly get you fired, getting the government to care now is no easier than it was then, AI has sucked all the doomer-energy up, etc.


Shitposting and buying a UVC light are a reasonable stopping point for fighting a massively uphill battle that most people just want to forget and ignore.


edit: the fight about the origin is largely nerd-sniping at this point, and it is interesting/depressing that more people haven't latched on to "the specific origin doesn't matter; GoF is dangerous and should be banned anyways."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 21, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Why do you think that is?




Civilizational guilt, mostly.


And the strange, grossly arrogant way Western "liberals" think that their culture is water and they no longer need to defend anything they care about.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 21, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I’m lost to your point.




Many Germans are happy to vote for replacement.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 14, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Only 2.7% of people in Texas are South Asian.




Texas is a big state and there are generational differences that are going to concentrate the effect at universities. The 20-year difference in DFW schools is... interesting.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 7, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It's not uncharitable




it's banania, it's by-definition uncharitable. The nerd's Tucker Carlson.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 7, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


In the case of BLM this is especially true, because advocates usually assume the issues are systemic, and not the result of a shadowy cabal, which is what a conspiracy would require.




Given that it is at least as disconnected from reality as a shadowy cabal (though probably less disconnected than patriarchy theory, which might as well be blaming Cthulhu), this seems like a pedantic point regarding what one might call the strict definition of conspiracy versus a folk definition.


Also "systemic" continues to be a terrible word for what would better be named something like "cultural hysteresis" but alas stupid language is the name of the game.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 7, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It cannot be that Anthropic and frontier developers are just chock full of these incredibly rare people and that this level of risk tolerance is also well-correlated with AI coding ability.




I'm not so sure that's unlikely, given the degrees and decades of filtering, how they occurred, and general, ah, crackpot factors related to frontier discoveries. Think of, say, newon and alchemy, or Kary Mullis inventing PCR versus basically all of his ideas/beliefs that aren't PCR.


Anthropic in particular is an experiment in distilling down the people at the intersection of high coding ability and extreme AI neuroticism, so everyone that makes it through their filters is going to be kind of a crackpot from the pov of a normal human being.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 7, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
while i don't have an eidetic memory of all posters, my recollection of your posting here is quite #resistancelib in your flavor of anti-Trumpism.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 7, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


at least those had the shame to hide it behind closed doors a bit.




the money gets pissed away either way, so who gives a shit about this theoretical shame of no consequence?




it's another sign of the GOP transformation into a populism powered welfare socialist party




Yes, we now have two braindead populist welfare socialist parties. Your side won! Shouldn't you be happier?


edit:




what does this say about politics now




chump politics won and a death spiral is overdetermined. that said, there's a lot of ruin in a nation, and that death spiral is likely to be long and fairly luxurious.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 7, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


AI is bad at producing useable images




Ai is very good at producing useable images, especially for people that can't or don't want to afford an art team. I can have an idea and generate, say, cute comics for my kid for a few cents and a couple minutes of time; that would be prohibitively expensive and a much bigger hassle dealing with an actual artist.


That said, I would agree it is less good at producing high-quality, consistent-across-time, consistent-across-detail images, and defaults to an uncanny and chabuduo lowest common denominator style.