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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2864 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 2, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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If you don't mind me asking, how did you even find this place? This site is a quarantine site to contain the often toxic political discussions that would otherwise happen elsewhere, and the people who enter the quarantine tend to be those of us who enjoy such things for whatever reason. The site isn't really advertised anywhere, and so usually the only people who come here are the proverbial pissing in the water club.

Coming here and complaining that there are too many bad political takes feels like signing up for a poker strategy forum and complaining that they talk about and glorify gambling an unhealthy amount - arguably not wrong, but how did you even get there?

I read that famous Harry Potter fanfiction by Yud and slippery sloped all the way here.

Now I'm really curious what did the intermediate parts of the slope looked like for you. The usual parts of the slope contain interminable debates about AI doom, but your question asking what an LLM is isn't compatible with you coming from that part of the slope, which means you must have taken a different and more interesting path.

If you're up for it, I'd like to know which of the following 20 obscure terms you've encountered.

  1. Paperclipping
  2. Shrimp welfare
  3. Dath Ilan
  4. Egregore
  5. Great Filter
  6. TPOT
  7. Moloch
  8. RaDVaC
  9. Futarchy
  10. Vampire castle dynamics
  11. Seeing Like a State
  12. Metamour
  13. Yeerk Ma'ar
  14. Motte and Bailey
  15. Bayesian
  16. Embryo selection
  17. PEPFAR
  18. The crystal sphere surrounding the world
  19. Seasteading
  20. Hyperstition

For your statistics, I...

  • Understand: 1, 5, 7, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 19.
  • Certain I've encountered, but I'd have to look up to be sure: 4, 17

All but 8/10/12/13. 18 might have a rationalist meaning I'm not familiar with, though, and I think recognise Yeerk as being an Animorphs reference.

1234567911141516171920

1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20. Very curious to know what the others mean.

9: This is rule by dickgirl the "put your money where your mouth is" voting scheme. You buy votes based on what you think will make the polity better, and if it does (by some metric or aggregation of metrics), you get richer. Keep guessing wrong, and you get poorer.

The problems with that are obvious when you think about it for 5 seconds (being that you can just abuse the definition of those metrics and that you can just outright buy laws if you have the cash to do it), but it's an idea.

3: Eliezers utopia/if everyone understood Im right world

12: Your polyamorous partners other partner

6: "This part of Twitter," where postrationalists like eigenrobot hang out.

9.I think this has something to do with a system of government that operates using market-based predictions of the future in some way, but I don't remember exactly.

18: Read Unsong. I mean, read it all, but just the page linked should suffice to understand 18.

I mean, read it all

I read like the first chapter and gave up. Scott's fiction style is something I can only take in small doses.

Ahhhh, I have read Unsong, completely forgot about that plot point. I was planning to re-read it this year anyway.

Some are a bit shaky, but pretty sure I've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.

What are vampire castle dynamics?

I never actually read the essay, but it's a reference to Mark Fisher's Exiting the Vampire Castle.

Ah. I did read it, but propably to late to learn anything from it - and I guess I didnt expect it on a list like this, anyway.

For me: Understand: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.

Have heard, but don't remember exact meaning (but maybe approximate): 9, 11, 20.

For me, the NYT article doxxing Scott->SSC->themotte. But I also read through a ton of LessWrong stuff along the way, and then HPMOR and Unsong.

To contribute to your statistics: 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12?, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

I read the Harry Potter fanfiction, I looked up the author and got to LessWrong, I read a lot of LessWrong, found Scott Alexander who mentioned Jordan Peterson. Looked up Jordan Peterson and found RationalWiki. RationalWiki led to SneerClub, which led to the Motte on reddit, and then I followed the Motte off reddit. Motte and Bailey, Bayesian and Embryo selection are the only three I know.

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity. Your posts make a lot more sense in the context of the RationalWiki -> SneerClub -> Motte path.

That’s how they got me, too…

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