If you want to maximize your expected utility, you try to save the world and the future of intergalactic civilization instead of donating your money to the society for curing rare diseases and cute puppies. Eliezer Yudkowsky More Quotes by Eliezer Yudkowsky More Quotes From Eliezer Yudkowsky The strength of a theory is not what it allows, but what it prohibits; if you can invent an equally persuasive explanation for any outcome, you have zero knowledge. Eliezer Yudkowsky persuasive outcomes zero You couldn't changed history. But you could get it right to start with. Do something differently the FIRST time around. This whole business with seeking Slytherin's secrets... seemed an awful lot like the sort of thing where, years later, you would look back and say, 'And THAT was where it all started to go wrong.' And he would wish desperately for the ability to fall back through time and make a different choice. Wish granted. Now what? Eliezer Yudkowsky choices years fall [...] intelligent people only have a certain amount of time (measured in subjective time spent thinking about religion) to become atheists. After a certain point, if you're smart, have spent time thinking about and defending your religion, and still haven't escaped the grip of Dark Side Epistemology, the inside of your mind ends up as an Escher painting. Eliezer Yudkowsky smart atheist dark You will find ambiguity a great ally on your road to power. Give a sign of Slytherin on one day, and contradict it with a sign of Gryffindor the next; and the Slytherins will be enabled to believe what they wish, while the Gryffindors argue themselves into supporting you as well. So long as there is uncertainty, people can believe whatever seems to be to their own advantage. And so long as you appear strong, so long as you appear to be winning, their instincts will tell them that their advantage lies with you. Walk always in the shadow, and light and darkness both will follow. Eliezer Yudkowsky strong believe lying I'm wondering if there's a spell to make lightning flash in the background whenever I make an ominous resolution. Eliezer Yudkowsky resolution lightning wonder Not every change is an improvement but every improvement is a change; you can't do anything BETTER unless you can manage to do it DIFFERENTLY, you've got to let yourself do better than other people! Eliezer Yudkowsky manage improvement people There are no surprising facts, only models that are surprised by facts; and if a model is surprised by the facts, it is no credit to that model. Eliezer Yudkowsky credit surprising facts If you are equally good at explaining any outcome, you have zero knowledge. Eliezer Yudkowsky outcomes zero explaining It is triple ultra forbidden to respond to criticism with violence. There are a very few injunctions in the human art of rationality that have no ifs, ands, buts, or escape clauses. This is one of them. Bad argument gets counterargument. Does not get bullet. Never. Never ever never for ever. Eliezer Yudkowsky criticism philosophy art A burning itch to know is higher than a solemn vow to pursue truth. To feel the burning itch of curiosity requires both that you be ignorant, and that you desire to relinquish your ignorance. Eliezer Yudkowsky ignorant curiosity ignorance I'm lazy! I hate work! Hate hard work in all its forms! Clever shortcuts, that's all I'm about! Eliezer Yudkowsky hard-work hate clever Your strength as a rationalist is your ability to be more confused by fiction than by reality. If you are equally good at explaining any outcome, you have zero knowledge. Eliezer Yudkowsky confused zero reality If people got hit on the head by a baseball bat every week, pretty soon they would invent reasons why getting hit on the head with a baseball bat was a good thing. Eliezer Yudkowsky bats baseball people There's a popular concept of 'intelligence' as book smarts, like calculus or chess, as opposed to, say, social skills. So people say that 'it takes more than intelligence to succeed in human society.' But social skills reside in the brain, not the kidneys. Eliezer Yudkowsky smart skills book Intelligence is the source of technology. If we can use technology to improve intelligence, that closes the loop and potentially creates a positive feedback cycle. Eliezer Yudkowsky feedback technology use The purpose of a moral philosophy is not to look delightfully strange and counterintuitive or to provide employment to bioethicists. The purpose is to guide our choices toward life, health, beauty, happiness, fun, laughter, challenge, and learning. Eliezer Yudkowsky laughter fun philosophy And someday when the descendants of humanity have spread from star to star, they won’t tell the children about the history of Ancient Earth until they’re old enough to bear it; and when they learn they’ll weep to hear that such a thing as Death had ever once existed! Eliezer Yudkowsky stars humanity children Science has heroes, but no gods. The great Names are not our superiors, or even our rivals, they are passed milestones on our road; and the most important milestone is the hero yet to come. Eliezer Yudkowsky important hero names If cryonics were a scam it would have far better marketing and be far more popular. Eliezer Yudkowsky scams marketing ifs Part of the rationalist ethos is binding yourself emotionally to an absolutely lawful reductionistic universe - a universe containing no ontologically basic mental things such as souls or magic and pouring all your hope and all your care into that merely real universe and its possibilities, without disappointment. Eliezer Yudkowsky ethos real disappointment
