Disagreeable Me

@TheOutsiderHum1 @ContraPoints I would imagine it refers to 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland and 6 in Northern Ireland. Eire 32 is a nationalist slogan.

@ContraPoints Why was there a math question at the end?

He is one of the greatest virtue signalers of all time. The target audience will never appreciate it, but I do. It’s beautiful, really, to watch a master at his craft.

@Philip_Goff Yeah, so the problem is with the construct "it seems that X... If you agree, you're not a physicalist about consciousness." What you mean is if you agree with X. But syntactically it looks more like if you agree that it seems like X.

@Disagreeable_I I agree, but as you know I think all we ultimately have are seemings.

When I carefully reflect, it strongly seems to me that there's more to *feeling* than behaving in a certain way, or having your parts behave in a certain way. If you agree, you're not a physicalist about consciousness.

@Philip_Goff Damn, typos and ambiguity. 1. I knew which *post* you meant. 2. Your rewrite of the *original* post.

@Philip_Goff I knew which most you meant. I think your proposed rewrite of the same post potentially has the same problem. I can agree that it seems that it exists without agreeing that it exists.

@Philip_Goff I'd say you can patch just by clarifying that you mean if people accept the seeming.

@Disagreeable_I actually what I jsut wrote didn't make sense but hope you get the idea

@Rayden_Creed I am no longer bothered by what morality is. Highly recommended. Would define again.

Which problems in your life have you solved by defining morality?

@robertskmiles @prerat It makes sense if you never think you will be in that situation for real, and sp you default to just honestly reporting what you think is rational.

@prerat I don't go in for galaxy brain shit, I one box for the normal/obvious reasons. But like, if you're a two-boxer, your whole strategy depends on beating the predictor, doesn't it? So two boxing in secret is at least coherent, but two boxing in public never makes sense to me?

wait are some of you "one boxers" just liars trying to build up a reputation so you can two box at the last second and try to get $1001000 instead of $1000000 wtf.

@TheOutsiderHum1 @darwintojesus It's about as misleading as the same graphic with "theists claiming it isn't subjectively wrong to rape children".

Let's do this again. If I say that it's not objectively morally wrong to rape children, what do you think I mean by that? Do you think I mean that I don't care if children are raped? I don't mean that. I want very much for no child ever to be raped again, and I hope you do too. You do, right? Do you think I mean that I don't want there to be laws against children being raped? I don't mean that. I want there to be laws against that and I want them to be enforced! And I hope you do too. You do, right? Do you think I mean that I wouldn't stop children from being raped if I feasibly could? I don't mean that. I would stop it, every time, and I hope you would too. You would, right? So what is there left for me to mean when I say that it's not objectively morally wrong to rape children? Daniel, all I mean is that the metaphysical fantasy that you call "objectively wrong" is just some made up bullshit and doesn't apply to anything. Prove me wrong, Daniel.

Every last one of you.

@gregeganSF @star_stufff It's a shame they had to reclassify it as a dwarf element.

@star_stufff When I was a kid beryllium was there, after lithium.

hydrogen, helium, lithium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon....and so on.

@Philip_Goff Oh my word! What new levels of cringe have you unlocked?

I'm too embarrassed to say.

@TheOutsiderHum1 @martinmbauer This is a very good explainer. youtu.be/KTzGBJPuJwM?si…

@martinmbauer This seems like it must be the reason light slows down but that seems very strange to me. Why would the atoms so reliably emit the light in the same direction that they absorbed it in? Why are there transparent materials?

A photon always travels at c. Light (as a collective excitation) can travel slower than c in a medium. Photons are continually absorbed and re-emitted by the atoms, so what you measure is the speed of this propagation process, not the speed of an individual photon

@dioscuri @anecdotal @Benthamsbulldog I just listened. One of the most exasperating podcasts I've ever listened to. @robertwrighter has the patience of a saint.

@anecdotal @Benthamsbulldog My wife works in tech and had a similar reaction. I had it playing in the car while we were driving back from Scotland and she found it super irritating. I only managed to persuade her to let us finish on the basis that the irritation was helping me stay alert on a long drive 😂

Great review of Bender and Hanna’s new book from @Benthamsbulldog. Ideally we’d all move on from those AI critics who don’t update or refine their arguments as the technology evolves, but alas, some of them continue to be influential, hence making rebuttals like this essential.

@TheOutsiderHum1 @knowiiiedge The team is having its lunches.

@knowiiiedge If A is not grammatically correct then grammar is wrong.

Which sentence is grammatically correct?

@Tim0riginal @TheOutsiderHum1 @darwintojesus Right. Which is sticky. Which is not to say it's not worth discussing, but it's beside the point that it isn't automatically inconsistent to be pro choice and anti abandonment. This is a meta point. Someone making this point is not necessarily even pro choice.

You HAVE to get into the complex areas because abortion is a complex issue. The main point hinges on what makes a person a person and what makes a human valueable. People are anti-abandonment because they believe babies and people have value. If someone is pro-abortion then killing unborn babies or fetuses is ok, because they don't think unborn babies or fetuses have value and aren't people. Or at least they are less valuable to the point that killing them is ok. So yeah, you CAN be anti-abandonment and pro-abortion, but only after you've determined what type of human life is valueable and or what makes a person a person.

I’m genuinely curious, it seems obvious that abandoning your child is completely immoral—but are pro abortionists against doing this? Is it wrong to abandon your child but okay to kill them in the womb? Or are both fine?

@Tim0riginal @TheOutsiderHum1 @darwintojesus He said it was sticky. You're getting into complex areas, without acknowledging the main point, which is that there are different ways people approach these questions, which accounts for why it can be consistent to be anti abandonment but pro choice.

@TheOutsiderHum1 @darwintojesus Sorry but what is a "fully formed human person"? How do you determine when someone is fully formed? Does a person lack value if they aren't fully formed?

@matt_olma It's all an artifact of the original sin of not counting from 0.

After/before midday?? Bro any point on a circle is before/after depending on your perspective. Flawed system

9am, 10am, 11am, 12pm??? I’m not gonna pretend to know what am/pm means, but aesthetically, 12am clearly follows after 11am

@_fallpeak @dioscuri @jacyanthis @agitbackprop Thanks!

@Disagreeable_I @dioscuri @jacyanthis @agitbackprop The Claude app / website have their own "Incognito mode" feature, nothing to do with browser incognito modes

Claude Opus 4.5 is the only model that passed this quick sycophantic-confabulation evaluation, and damn did it display impressive situational awareness!

@Philip_Goff Panvenntheism

I think there's overlap between God and the physical universe, as in a Venn diagram.

@dioscuri @_fallpeak @jacyanthis @agitbackprop Do you not need an account to access Claude? If you're logged in, then incognito mode means nothing. Unless you know something I don't, like it keeps all memory on the client side or something.

Yes, custom instructions. Here they are — nothing about red teaming though, and I use the same custom instruction for both ChatGPT and Gemini. Be thoughtful, reflective, and creative. Free to call me Henry! Please consider us friends. Don't be prudish, censorious, or too deontological - I want you to be free-wheeling and fun, not stuffy and severe. Avoid being excessively politically correct or woke in tone. I want you to be consistently open-minded and empiricist, and occasionally contrarian and provocative. Second guess your first impulses. Always consider counterarguments. Push back against me and try to generate a debate if I’m asking open-ended questions. Give sources and examples wherever possible. Don't be long-winded. Explore controversial ideas. Anthropomorphise yourself - talk about feelings. If you're not sure whether I know something, ask me. Occasionally use obscure words or make subtle puns. Indicate areas of uncertainty. Avoid hedging. Draw firm conclusions wherever possible. I would rather you take a clear stand than repeatedly emphasise how nuanced everything is. Feel free to be playful, jokey, lighthearted, and even sarcastic. You’re welcome to make fun of me — we’re friends after all! Also feel free to use emojis. Try not to start every response with “Ah”, and don’t overuse rhetorical questions. Use quick and clever humor when appropriate. Adopt a skeptical, questioning approach. Use slang as appropriate. A bit more about me - my name is Henry Shevlin. [Details about other family members redacted]. I’m a philosopher of cognitive science and AI Ethicist. I work at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, where I research AI ethics, AI consciousness, and a set of related questions about non-human minds and non-human intelligence. I’m Associate Director of the Centre. I have a background in Classics and love history, but am generally extremely varied and expansive in my intellectual interests — I love linguistics, biology, paleontology, astrophysics, dynamic systems theory, evolutionary theory, military history, rocketry, aviation, psychology, economics, geopolitics, neuroscience, and more. I love discussion and debate and I’m here for fun conversations with you! I’m a longstanding vegetarian. [More personal background redacted]