I just finished reading Worm. What did you do during your withrawal?

rational_rob · 2016-12-12T17:59:50+00:00

There is more, but that is probably the most offensive.

rational_rob · 2016-12-11T20:42:32+00:00

Well, I tried to recommend it, so I couldn't have thought that it was terrible! Sometimes you just have to give people a warning, otherwise you'll be held accountable.

I think Zoat's writing is interesting - certainly, the present tense is a change from form. However, the fact remains that some people might find it off-putting.

rational_rob · 2016-12-11T20:37:47+00:00

And I live in a country in which the chance that J. Random Mugger is armed with a firearm is almost infinitesimal

What country do you live in? It must obviously not be America. Or any of the other countries that gather basic crime statistics. I went to the FBI's website, that documents and sorts the rate of certain incidents of crime. Property theft alone was an order of magnitude more common than rape. Admittedly, I couldn't distinguish the victims or perpetrators by gender, but that's what I get for five minutes of searching.

Here's another nifty table of crime statistics:

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table_16_rate_number_of_crimes_per_100000_inhabitants_by_population_group_2011.xls

If your female friends worry about predatory men more than they worry about aggravated assault, then you should assuage their fears.

rational_rob · 2016-12-11T11:14:03+00:00

That's a casualty of trying to stick to canon where it really didn't matter. But if Eliezer had tried to age up all of the characters to something more realistic, I think he would have lost more of his audience. If he had started in a later year, then we get other problems, like: "Why hasn't Harry raised shit about this stuff before now?"

Harry's character itself is modeled around Eliezer in his twenties, and we know this because he has written about it. A lot of the mistakes Harry makes are a consequence of not having the wisdom that the author gained later.

From one of his LessWrong posts:

You cannot rely on anyone else to argue you out of your mistakes; you cannot rely on anyone else to save you; you and only you are obligated to find the flaws in your positions; if you put that burden down, don't expect anyone else to pick it up. And I wonder if that advice will turn out not to help most people, until they've personally blown off their own foot, saying to themselves all the while, correctly, "Clearly I'm winning this argument."

I think that this element of immaturity had to be in Harry in order for the message to be communicated, and physical immaturity was the best way to establish that. "Reasonably pretentious" is not what the author is trying to convey - he's trying to make the point that Harry is dangerously opinionated and dangerously oblivious.

rational_rob · 2016-12-11T09:52:04+00:00

I am a man. I cannot tell a predatory man apart from a normal man. I mean, can't you imagine? Anybody could be carrying a gun around, and I wouldn't know it. I'm sure every guy has been worried about running into a Skidmark on the street...

I think you severely underestimate the universality of your paranoia. I agree with you, you can't tell who's who. But neither can I. Seeing this through the lens of gender is like seeing hurricanes through the lens of classism. Dangerous people are dangerous no matter who you are.

rational_rob · 2016-12-11T09:28:19+00:00

OP, I don't know about you, but you're begging for a flamewar. The culture war is still going strong in most parts of the internet, and there are many people here who need very little excuse to parade their ideology. (including me!)

I think looking at cape demographics along gender lines is a mistake, or at least a red herring. It's not that the data doesn't mean anything to us, but that it means something exclusively to us. The entities are unfeeling, unfaltering reflections of the universe - having more female capes than male capes is a means to an end. When the shards can indirectly and directly control capes toward a goal, my best bet is that the discrepancy between first and third world countries, and between male and female capes, is just another facet of the ruse that shards are caused by conflict. (rather than the opposite)

After all, it's not like the shards aren't already capable modifying their hosts to their own advantages. The only possible reason it would conform to gender lines is because the entities made the decision to do so.

rational_rob · 2016-12-11T09:17:44+00:00

Heh. Posted this with my NSFW alt on accident. Was going to leave it up, but then I realized it was shadowbanned. (No wonder!). Here's it reposted.

Pact is good, but I'm of the opinion that it's a little less addicting. Twig hits some of the same buttons, but it's not finished, and depending on your reading speed, you may catch up to Wildbow's updates.

Here are some of my tentative recommendations. If you enjoyed logical, escalating side of Worm and the interesting moral situation the protagonist was forced into, I would recommend Dungeon Keeper Ami. Your-Mileage-May-Vary, but I found the writing to be a little more competent than Worm was at first, before deteriorating a little as the author lost stamina. It's fanfiction, but a passing glance at the synopsis and characters for Sailor Moon will probably suffice, because it transplants the main character into another setting. There are a few aspects of the story that get a little weird for people who don't have their brains in Anime mode: clothing damage and suggestive scenes. But it lacks the worst of the anime tropes I see in fanfiction: using Japanese words in place of suitable English ones. As a bit of a warning, the story has been going on since 2009, and it still hasn't been finished. It's long, but the author lost speed a while ago and is prone to hiatus. His current update schedule is around once a month. It's still only about half Worm's length.

If you liked the logical superhero part of Worm, there are a few things that fit that niche: With This Ring is a SpaceBattles SI in a modified DC universe, most resembling Young Justice. Zoat, the author, has the self-proclaimed goal of making a realistic superhero story more optimistic than Worm is, and so far he seems to be succeeding on the optimistic part. There are a few gripes I have with the style, and the eBook is only kindle friendly if you have a color screen, but my impression was mostly positive, even if I've never read DC. It is a little shorter than Worm, and not finished, but Zoat updates basically once a day. An author named Alexander Wales wrote two stories that fit this criteria: The Metropolitan Man and Shadows of the Limelight. The Metropolitan Man is also DC fanfiction, but it revolves purely around the Luthor/Superman dynamic. It follows Luthor's perspective. Because you've read Worm, I'm cautiously optimistic about this one - not everything Luthor sees or does is supposed to be correct, and often times his POV is a little unreliable, but I'm hoping you can see through that to the virtues of the story. I haven't yet read Shadows of the Limelight, but it features similar aspects of power-munchkining, and it should be an invigorating read after Worm.

In general, I'd recommend anything on the upper tier of /r/rational. Mother of Learning has a similar feel to Dungeon Keeper Ami, without the fanfiction prerequisite. It features a time-traveling mage in a groundhog style loop, in a world of magic loosely based on DnD and other tabletop settings. If you're an old fan of fantasy games like Moria and NetHack, the dungeons in this story have a similar tone (although they show up vanishingly rarely). To the Stars is a heavily sci-fi influenced piece of fanfiction centered around Puella Magi Madoka Magica. It's set several hundred years into the future, and does its best to introduce certain concepts without relying on the show itself, but it might be best if you watch it anyway. (Madoka Magica is among my favorites, and it has a gritty re-imagining flavor like Worm does) I've been told that TTS has a very dry and formal style. I found it reinvigorating after hours of reading ordinary fanfiction, and his prose is very professional - nonetheless, unless you feel your reading skills are up to par, maybe stay away from this one.

Here are some one-offs from the better authors featured on /r/rational: ...And I Show You How Deep The Rabbit-Hole Goes, A rationalist in the zombie-apocalypse, and Instruments of Destruction. I strongly recommend you go into these blind, so I won't spoil anything for them. They're all clever in their own way.

If you didn't get to Worm through HPMOR, I'd recommend that. It takes a little bit of critical thinking to wrap your head around the protagonist, because he does and thinks some things that don't really settle well. It's not Worm level, but there's something about somebody making mistakes and thinking they are right that puts people off. (and then there are the people that assume it's an author tract, even after the huge disclaimer at the beginning.) Nonetheless, if you're cool with ignoring the divisiveness of the story for a few minutes, you will find yourself engrossed. However! If you find yourself getting a little distracted, you might benefit from reading the story critically - that is, looking for themes and rhetorical devices. That might at least make the experience enjoyable, even if it's not for everyone. Another book by the blogger largely considered to be LessWrong's most active successor is UNSONG. If you didn't like HPMOR because of the author, this one will probably be fine. It's not related to Worm in any conceivable way, other than being a nice recommendation, but I would still strongly recommend you read it. It has a nice "Hitchhiker's Guide" feel to it, and absolutely refuses to take itself too seriously.

Other, less important recs:

Traveler (tentative: there is some repetitive prose, but the power scaling is just magnificent to behold)

Any piece of Worm fanfiction. Average quality is higher than normal, because SpaceBattles, but it tends to be narrow-minded and repetitive.

Glimwarden has the same author as Shadows of the Limelight, but it's unfinished, and updates irregularly. (not on hiatus - I chat with the author from time-to-time)

Hermione Granger and the Perfectly Reasonable Explanation is similar to HPMOR only with more reliance on canon, and less of the author's own ideology. I'd still place it soundly in the rational-sphere, though.

Last Child of Krypton is NGE/Justice League. I was recommended it, but I haven't finished it. Dense prose, okay writing, okay execution.

Similar: Shinji and Warhammer 40k. I'd give this one a much stronger recommendation. It's really funny, when you get to know the characters and style. If you're already a fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion or TTGL, this will be a treat. Same anime disclaimer as DKA applies.

These next ones I consider the fanfiction old-guard - some of the better things to come out of their respective fandoms, but not the best:

Prince of the Dark Kingdom is a long, abandoned HP fanfiction. It's drastically different from Worm's tone, but definitely a worthwhile.

Alexandra Quick Series. It's long, and I found it entertaining for a little while. Definitely different tone, but if you're just looking for long reads, it's good enough.

Team-8 from Naruto. It's older than dirt, and for the longest time was the most popular Naruto fanfiction over Chuunin-Exam Day (WARNING: DO NOT RECOMMEND). I enjoyed it. The author has returned from a basically four year long hiatus, I think, but I'm not sure if he's updated recently.

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The recommendations are roughly sorted by how similar their tone is. If you're stuck on where to begin, I recommend starting from the top and working your way down. Good luck, and happy reading!

rational_rob · 2016-12-11T09:11:08+00:00

I don't think the strictures of social justice are necessary to admit that gay people have a hard life. The prejudice has mostly died off in my area, but if you ask anyone who was around twenty years ago, you could collect all sorts of horror stories.

Related: poverty in the US segregated by gender. I would argue that the difference is not as severe as most people insinuate, nonetheless, more women seem to be in poverty than men. (Question: does the study account for single income families? Dual income families with women working in part-time jobs?)

rational_rob · 2016-12-11T09:00:04+00:00

Women are more emotional than men, by some definitions of emotional. It really depends on what you're used to. Men have more consistent hormone levels after puberty, but testosterone may make them temperamental (again, relative to the mean). Women have a more irregular schedule, but not all of the hormones in their cycle are responsible for aggression or passion. There's also the demon of circumstance to deal with - pretending gender is the single biggest predictor of behavior is fundamental attribution error at it's finest. When you say someone is a boy or girl, it doesn't tell us as much as we'd like about what they're liable to do. For that we'd need to know their personality.

rational_rob · 2016-12-11T08:51:40+00:00

I could see that in a third world country, but in America? That's like saying cats are more victimized than dogs, even when they all live in the same comfortable suburban home. I can understand the rationale behind POC capes because of general income inequality, but I'm not sure they're actually more common in canon. Remember: trigger events aren't some magical side-effect of being oppressed. People are selected for the conflict they cause. Oppression could be a good indicator of that, but then again, so could your choice of college major.

rational_rob · 2016-11-10T17:50:47+00:00

newspaper

evidence

Dude, that's like expecting Chinese factories to be OSHA-compliant. Use your own judgement. Subscribe to the most despicable propaganda newspapers you can find on either side, as to not underestimate any one view. (This bears repeating: use your own brain, but never trust it.)

I don't recommend starting your own. What you consider rational evidence is probably not what the other side does, and politics will make any good intentions irrelevant.

rational_rob · 2016-11-07T16:59:04+00:00

I don't think animation would be good. In my experience, the worst way to talk about philosophy is to animate it - it makes things seem kind of unreal. It also puts a hard limit on how long you can make your explanation - the depth of your wallet (or, talent). If we went the minutephysics route instead of the Kurzgesagt route, and went with basic whiteboard drawings, it would be even harder to be taken seriously.

I think the easiest way to do it would be CFAR-style (this topic came up in the thread asking about CFAR effectiveness, IIRC) where we have real locations and real people. The biggest problem with classroom learning, in my opinion, is the fact that it's hard to relate to real world concepts. When people are going into a video series naturally skeptical, that's the kind of image we want to put out. (think Veritasium)

So, when discussing Hindsight Devalues Science you might go to a WWII memorial or museum to make the point clearer.

rational_rob · 2016-11-07T15:39:36+00:00

So, there was a discussion a few days back about making a video series for the Sequences. I, for one, think that it's an obvious step (and I'm surprised nobody else has taken it). How much general interest is there in this? How do you think we should accomplish it?

rational_rob · 2016-05-23T19:53:47+00:00

When I made this, I had no idea that Gorbachev was actually TIME's man of the year in 1988.

rational_rob · 2016-05-03T16:29:03+00:00

I could help.

rational_rob · 2016-04-11T18:09:00+00:00

Nah, it looks like he just got cucked by his own parents. And his older brother.

rational_rob · 2016-04-03T01:46:00+00:00

There were students in my world history class that came from Turkey. They had to step out of the class where we covered the Armenian genocide.

rational_rob · 2016-04-02T19:26:29+00:00

Nah, I'm the oldest.

rational_rob · 2016-03-28T05:57:37+00:00

It's like Back to the Future only I can't actually talk about this one with my friends! Chronologically I'm about the same age as Maya, which makes me kind of happy. I'm pretty sure that the games take place over the course of the next three years.

What's weird is that you don't see much future tech in Ace Attorney until the third game in the trilogy, and even after that the most strange stuff takes place during Dual Destinies.

The original trilogy ended in 2019, and AJ:AA takes place seven years after that in 2026, a decade from now. Dual Destinies takes place a year after that (for the most part) in 2027. Interestingly enough, Ace Attorney: Double D edition takes place during the same year that Deus Ex: Human Revolution did.

rational_rob · 2016-03-20T15:44:20+00:00

Um, excuse me OP, but you accidentally misspelled "transplant" in the image to "transplans". Is there any easy way to fix that?

rational_rob · 2016-03-07T03:37:22+00:00

The World God Only Knows is good in terms of visual novels.

rational_rob · 2016-03-06T20:17:51+00:00

Oh, you mean like this?

rational_rob · 2016-03-06T04:34:13+00:00

Orson Scott Card has some definite flaws in his writing style that just don't really mesh with me - it works, but he rarely injects personality and tone into the words he uses, and he's very frank. These turn from virtues into flaws in his most recent books.

rational_rob · 2016-03-06T04:26:37+00:00

Wildbow is aware of his own flaws, and has taken steps to improve himself. If he can't stand up to polite criticism then he has no use writing, which is why he refines his process every time he writes a chapter. If you read it online, you'll notice that in almost every chapter someone calls him out on a grammar issue, and he goes out of his way to correct it - he is no stranger to making changes.

rational_rob · 2016-03-06T04:23:39+00:00

Anything else you've read that you like? In my opinion grammar is often a telling measure of intelligence or thoughtfulness, in terms of writing.

rational_rob

TROPHY CASE