As I see it, it is a hive for pretentiousness. It is essentially a personality cult built around an egotistical socially-awkward autist who unironically believes that super-intelligent AI are going to hunt him down. It seems to attract highly self-centered individuals who believe they are more intelligent than everyone else because they devoutly read their savior's Sequences of blog posts, a few scientific papers, and their first book on philosophy. These people generally tend to be 20-something didn't-think-about-my-political-opinions-twice liberals who have not had sex and are not interested in sex because it's too "normie" or something. Don't take my word for it, they have diaspora survey results right here!
Did I mention their Lord and Savior Eliezer Yudkowsky is a fucking autist? Pic VERY related. He also gets legitimate nightmares about thought experiments. Roko is a god-tier troll; God bless him.
Good things about the site: -They are self aware. They know Yudkowsky is crazy and they know the reputation of their site is fucked. -Despite their virgin tendencies, some of the residents of LessWrong are actually pretty insightful and good human beings. Gwern, the Lord of the Autists, is an excellent example. His own website is a sight to behold. -Keeps the circle-jerkers away from the real world.
Am I being too harsh? Is there anything else redeemable about this website?
Purifying their thinking is the entire point of lesswrong, in fact. Yudkowsky's sequences are simply a series of essays that form part of that quest.
Carson Price
Interesting conclusions drawn from false premises; theologians of the 21st century. Really far up their own asses.
Aaron Foster
First impressions are that, pretension aside, he seems like a passionate guy with big ideas. If he's liberal I'll probably disagree with him on most things, but at least he's proactive.
Probably not worth investing too much thought in, OP. Although the Centre for Applied Rationality thing looks really interesting - in line with some of my own thoughts.
That said, I just looked at their 2016 survey results and approximately 8.25% of respondents identified as either Female (trans MtF); Male (trans FtM); or Other.... Fucking hell, what an """""eclectic""""" bunch of people.
Anthony Lee
Over 26% of respondents identified as either Homosexual; Bisexual; Other; or did not answer. Wew lad, that is a huge deviation from the general population.
Christian Sullivan
It is only rational to be homosexual, after all. If you are still straight, you are just insecure about your sexuality. :^)
Blake Stewart
5.52% responded "Yes" to "Are you asexual?". 4.96% didn't answer.
>0 (35.39%) >Lots and lots (0.95%) >No answer (3.73%)
Ethan Bailey
>Polyamorous, 13.73% Oh, that seems to be prevalent in this community for some reason. I think Yudkowsky wrote a blog post about it. He's all for polyamory/cuckoldry.
Jordan Williams
Have you ever been diagnosed with any autism spectrum disorder?
>No, but I believe I have/had it (8.50% [12.42%, excluding non-respondents]) >Yes, formally diagnosed (5.26% [7.69%, excluding non-respondents])
So, excluding non-respondents, which were very high (31.57%), just over 1 in 5 LessWrong users have been formally diagnosed, or have self-reported, having autism - that's a factor of 13.6 times as many compared to 1 in 68 for the general US population.
I don't think you're being harsh, OP. I have nothing against bisexual, polyamorous, asexual, virginal high-schoolers with autism, but you're unlikely to be enlightened by them.
Nathan Ramirez
>So, excluding non-respondents, which were very high (31.57%), just over 1 in 5 LessWrong users have been formally diagnosed, or have self-reported, having autism - that's a factor of 13.6 times as many compared to 1 in 68 for the general US population. Sounds comparable to Veeky Forums to be honest.
Logan Nelson
>on a typical friday night i am... being serviced by my slave
who the fuck would want to ""service"" this cheeto encrusted star trek convention abomination?
based on that reading, i wouldn't put it past him to personally respond to this thread. what a fucking douche
Evan Green
forgot my pic
Nolan Nelson
>LessWrong seems to be OftenWrong
Jackson Ross
They have plenty if issues, but at least they try
Ryder Scott
Better than free domain radio 2bh
Jordan Allen
>and am the master of Brienne. What the fuck does that even mean?
Leo Morgan
>Centre for Applied Rationality
Too bad they don't actually do anything productive. So basically it is a scam to get Elzier free money.
Henry Ross
Exactly what it says. Brienne Yudkowsy (yes, she adopted Eliezer's last name) is his sex slave.
