this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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SneerClub

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Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.

AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)

This is sneer club, not debate club. Unless it's amusing debate.

[Especially don't debate the race scientists, if any sneak in - we ban and delete them as unsuitable for the server.]

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Vaccinations in Book/Article Form, Part II (awful.systems)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Its been a good minute since the last thread like this, and with the techno-fascist dystopia being unleashed through the Trump administration, it felt like the time was right to bring this back.

Anyways, this is mostly the same idea as before - find books (or articles) that come down upon the superficial TESCREAL version of cool things like a ton of scientific bricks.

Gonna start this thread off with a few random examples I've already found:

  • The questions ChatGPT shouldn’t answer (Elizabeth Lopatto) - Goes heavily into OpenAI's non-existent understanding of ethics, with a paragraph noting AI's links to LessWrong and effective altruism. (EDIT: Originally said "non-existent understanding of physics" - thanks to @blakestacey for catching that)

  • The Fake Nerd Boys of Silicon Valley (Lyta Gold) - A deep dive into Silicon Valley's fundamental misunderstanding of sci-fi. Not directly about TESCREAL, but still works wonders against it IMO.

  • "Main character syndrome" (Anna Gotlib) - Whilst primarily a critique of the titular phenomenon, it does also use longtermism/effective altruism as an example of such.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

One area where I don't know of good recommendations is theoretical computer science. I am not sure what to suggest that would accessibly teach topics like algorithmic/Kolmogorov information theory without sliding downhill into "we can automate the scientific method" crankery. Or, perhaps, which teaches the relevant concepts clearly and solidly enough to make it obvious that LW use of them is crankery.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

On that note, I would recommend perusing Underwood Dudley's Mathematical Cranks, not so much for the details of any math topic like trisecting an angle, but for the tone and psychology of the crank letters.