Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Swizec 1160 days ago
> my two-second no-research hot take

This is more like watching an argument between Feynman and Oppenheimer. They look like hot takes on twitter, but these guys have spent plenty of time thinking about it.

Yudkowsky is an AI ethics and safety researcher, also founder of LessWrong, an HN favorite – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliezer_Yudkowsky

And Chalmers is a philosopher focusing on consciousness and cognitive science – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chalmers

I wouldn’t put their replies in exactly the same category as your typical social media reply guys.

2 comments

Yudkowsky and LessWrong was regarded as kooky for ages and, after the Roko's Basilisk affair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk and read Yudkowsky's hilariously deranged all-caps response), a laughingstock as well. Suggesting that he's on the same plane as serious researchers is inappropriate.
I didn’t mean my comment about this tweet exchange as an example, I was only trying to speak to the comment I replied to about a general trend. This particular exchange is not the problem; it’s the inability for the public to gauge when it’s not like this, though, if that makes sense.