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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3669 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 31, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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How Rationalist (community) Are You survey. Kind of curious how y'all rank. Its an Aella survey of course.

I got "Highrat: 95-99th percentile" I think this is because I like all the blogs, but apparently there are some counterintuitive questions that I took the "rat" side of

Your score is 18.59!

Highrat: 95-99th percentile: A rare form of rat, you almost definitely are a programmer with lots of controversial views and a brain that's almost entirely boy. You know the AI alignment arguments both ways. You may not have been to a CFAR workshop due to it being too social.

"You are Normie: 30-50th percentile"

Score: -7.56

I've never felt so proud to be lumped in with the normies. I'm guessing it's because I'm not a science nerd, I don't read navel gazing inside baseball EA blogs, and I'm a socialcon. I might have scored differently had different questions been asked.

5 - 15th percentile.

Unratlike, 5-15th percentile: Low! You don't jive with most of rationalists say, AI definitely isn't going to end the world, you probably have a great exercise routine.

I don’t like blogs, I really can’t stand pages long drawn out waffling and I’ve long since come to the conclusion that being talked about here often is a major anti-recommendation for an author as far as I’m concerned. I also suspect the nanotech, condensed matter physics and genetic engineering questions assume ”rationalists” to have either studied the domain academically or (more likely) have major Dunning - Kruger about them.

Edit: I suspect the questionnaire could have been reduced to just a single question while keeping much the same result (albeit at much cruder scale): ”Do you like intellectual masturbation even if it doesn’t benefit your professional life or major hobbies?”

I got -5.38, which apparently makes me

Toe-in Rat, 50-70th percentile. You probably play board games, know what prediction markets are, and maybe occasionally read a blog or two. Not really a full-fledged rationalist, but their world is next door.

I suppose I do occasionally read a blog or two. I don't have any interest in board games. I know what prediction markets are, but don't have any particular desire to participate.

I got 70-85th percentile, which is… odd, because I definitely don’t consider myself to be a Rationalist (but I am a terminally-online nerd, so, if that’s the level of granularity you want to work at…)

I answered disagree/strongly disagree to the “are you really smart and have you read a lot of books?” questions - I wonder if that decreased the score or increased the score.

75p light rat, I was wishing for it to be lower. I strongly disagreed to that poem and the physics and the nanotechnology question as well.

What’s wrong with the rats?

I don't like their Aesthetics. And on a personality level, they tend to be too neurotic.

I feel like could get along with Robin Hanson and Bryan Caplan not with Yudkowsky, Scott Alexander, and Scott Aaronson; the latter 3 are too neurotic.

Lightrat. I wonder if being annoyed at every question being "agree/disagree" correlates with the result.

30-50th percentile, normie. Yeah that's about right. I'm not exactly a normie but I've never considered myself a rationalist. I'm just here because I used to like Scott's insights on culture war topics, and because I still enjoy the insights here.

Fun thing, this question threw me for a loop:

Socially speaking, you tend to be more

Social leftists tend to prefer lower government involvement in social issues, for example allowing drugs and abortions. Social rightists tend to prefer higher government involvement in social issues, for example outlawing sex work or obscenities.

I would prefer a lower socially mandated conformity (not necessarily via the government) on social issues, which happens to favor the "left" side currently. Like, on the 2d political compass I'd be left-libertarian, but absolutely not left-totalitarian.

Highrat: 95-99th percentile: A rare form of rat, you almost definitely are a programmer with lots of controversial views and a brain that's almost entirely boy. You know the AI alignment arguments both ways. You may not have been to a CFAR workshop due to it being too social.

cool, i guess

I got -14.53

Normie, 15-30th percentile: You're not that antirat, but you're definitely not a rationalist either. Maybe you have a degree in literature, or have a few dogs, or like watching sports.

I got TrueRat, 85-95th percentile. I am also creeped out by how closely I was pegged by the flavor text…

No question, you are One Of Them. Probably you work at a rationalist-org, or have seriously considered it. You probably have a whiteboard in your bedroom.

Not surprised. I’m pretty deep in the culture but have some fundamental disagreements with a lot of the nerdier stuff.

High rat (95-99).

The flavor text saying I'm "almost definitely...a programmer" is a little funny since I am definitely no such thing. I do think the apparent overlap between computer science types and philosophy/politics/economics circles is interesting, though.

Toe-in Rat. Sounds about right.

I got 95-99th myself, to my utter lack of surprise!

Lightrat. I'm surprised I scored so high, to be quite honest. But I'm curious how people said "studied" for different things. Studied advanced physics like, at a university course you passed, or like on a youtube playlist from a random guy with crazy eyes? But then, maybe the Rats who didn't actually study physics thinking they study physics is what makes them rationalists.

oh, I was a bit confused by those questions, I answered yes for the physics ones because I took grad courses in those subjects. Was the expectation that rats would say they "know how to design nanotechnology" from just reading the sequences or something?

I'm highly skeptical anybody answering that survey actually knows how to design nanotechnology.

Maybe the question should've been "have you read Drexler's Nanosystems and understood all the math?", because "nanotechnology" isn't exactly as well defined as something like quantum mechanics.

Like someone mentioned elsewhere in the thread, I think those could have been there with intention of capturing a Dunning Kruger effect. Which I think is actually and underused tool in surveys to capture certain overconfident opinions people might have.

If graduate school doesn't count as studying something, I don't know what does.

The question isn't necessarily expecting overconfident claims, though. It just expects really high chance of comorbidity.

It's tough maybe being a girl or something.

We're just too pretty for the other rationalists, Fruck.

I got MidRat, which surprised me. I didn't think I'd rank that high, being an evangelical Christian who is only mildly worried about AI. I'm not sure what pushed me over the edge: being able to recite a poem from memory? Having a good opinion of Mormons? I'd love to see the correlations.

The test seems to assume that a lot of things are exclusive to Rats that aren't.

Like with the little blurb at the end with the toe-in rat score seems to imply that prediction markets are a Rat thing rather than a polite version of an assassination market.

I couldn't do the poem one, so I don't think it's that.

yep, got a 25.38 score, which makes me HighRat too

Lightrat 75%. I'm surprised it's that high.

She really pegged me:

Toe-in Rat, 50-70th percentile. You probably play board games, know what prediction markets are, and maybe occasionally read a blog or two. Not really a full-fledged rationalist, but their world is next door.

I host a Saturday board games event monthly at church, know of but have never visited a prediction market site, and peruse blog posts but don’t follow blogs.

5-15th percentile. I’m a little surprised I’m THAT low, but yeah, I’m only a semi rationalist.

The question that equates economic leftist and economic liberalism and calls economic liberalism economic rightism hurts me.

Why did Americans have to ruin the word liberal.

Yeah amen. I went liberal on the economic question before I realised what she meant with the social, although I don't know how it affected my score.

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