If you are equally good at explaining any outcome, you have zero knowledge. Eliezer Yudkowsky More Quotes by Eliezer Yudkowsky More Quotes From Eliezer Yudkowsky I am a full-time Research Fellow at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, a small 501(c)(3) public charity supported primarily by individual donations. Eliezer Yudkowsky machines charity research Existential depression has always annoyed me; it is one of the world's most pointless forms of suffering. Eliezer Yudkowsky annoyed suffering world Since the rise of Homo sapiens, human beings have been the smartest minds around. But very shortly - on a historical scale, that is - we can expect technology to break the upper bound on intelligence that has held for the last few tens of thousands of years. Eliezer Yudkowsky technology historical years We tend to see individual differences instead of human universals. Thus, when someone says the word 'intelligence,' we think of Einstein instead of humans. Eliezer Yudkowsky individual differences thinking If you've been cryocrastinating, putting off signing up for cryonics "until later", don't think that you've "gotten away with it so far". Many worlds, remember? There are branched versions of you that are dying of cancer, and not signed up for cryonics, and it's too late for them to get life insurance. Eliezer Yudkowsky cancer dying thinking To confess your fallibility and then do nothing about it is not humble; it is boasting of your modesty. Eliezer Yudkowsky rationality modesty humble There's something in science like the shine of the Patronus Charm, driving back all sorts of darkness and madness. Eliezer Yudkowsky driving shining darkness What people really believe doesn't feel like a BELIEF, it feels like the way the world IS. Eliezer Yudkowsky believe people world Singularitarians are the munchkins of the real world. We just ignore all the usual dungeons and head straight for the cycle of infinite wish spells. Eliezer Yudkowsky usual real wish Anything that could give rise to smarter-than-human intelligence - in the form of Artificial Intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, or neuroscience-based human intelligence enhancement - wins hands down beyond contest as doing the most to change the world. Nothing else is even in the same league. Eliezer Yudkowsky intelligence change hands world I don't care where I live, so long as there's a roof to keep the rain off my books, and high-speed Internet access. Eliezer Yudkowsky internet care rain long The media thinks that only the cutting edge of science, the very latest controversies, are worth reporting on. How often do you see headlines like 'General Relativity still governing planetary orbits' or 'Phlogiston theory remains false'? By the time anything is solid science, it is no longer a breaking headline. Eliezer Yudkowsky you media time science The human species was not born into a market economy. Bees won't sell you honey if you offer them an electronic funds transfer. The human species imagined money into existence, and it exists - for us, not mice or wasps - because we go on believing in it. Eliezer Yudkowsky go you born money Nothing you'll read as breaking news will ever hold a candle to the sheer beauty of settled science. Textbook science has carefully phrased explanations for new students, math derived step by step, plenty of experiments as illustration, and test problems. Eliezer Yudkowsky problems you beauty science I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow was the Final Dawn, the last sunrise before the Earth and Sun are reshaped into computing elements. Eliezer Yudkowsky sunrise tomorrow dawn sun Textbook science is beautiful! Textbook science is comprehensible, unlike mere fascinating words that can never be truly beautiful. Elementary science textbooks describe simple theories, and simplicity is the core of scientific beauty. Fascinating words have no power, nor yet any meaning, without the math. Eliezer Yudkowsky simple beautiful beauty science In our skulls, we carry around 3 pounds of slimy, wet, greyish tissue, corrugated like crumpled toilet paper. You wouldn't think, to look at the unappetizing lump, that it was some of the most powerful stuff in the known universe. Eliezer Yudkowsky look think you universe My successes already accomplished have mostly been taking existing science and getting people to apply it in their everyday lives. Eliezer Yudkowsky been everyday science people To be clever in argument is not rationality but rationalization. Eliezer Yudkowsky rationality argument clever If our extinction proceeds slowly enough to allow a moment of horrified realization, the doers of the deed will likely be quite taken aback on realizing that they have actually destroyed the world. Therefore I suggest that if the Earth is destroyed, it will probably be by mistake. Eliezer Yudkowsky will moment mistake world
