## [D] Monday General Rationality Thread * Author: u/AutoModerator * * URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/9cm6xq/d_monday_general_rationality_thread/ * Score: 14 * Created: 2018-09-03T15:07:04 ### Post: Welcome to the Monday thread on general rationality topics! Do you really want to talk about something non-fictional, related to the real world? Have you: * Seen something interesting on /r/science? * Found a new way to get your shit even-more together? * Figured out how to become immortal? * Constructed artificial general intelligence? * Read a neat nonfiction book? * Munchkined your way into total control of your D&D campaign? ### Comments: > **u/Veedrac** [+6] (an hour later) > > What do people think of MIRI as a charity? >> **u/callmesalticidae** [+13] *writes worldbuilding books* (2 hours later) >> >> I’m skeptical of its effectiveness, mainly because I’ve encountered more than a few people who believe that AI is what we should all be focusing on, and who still doubt that MIRI in particular is the optimal AI risk nonprofit. I haven’t seen anyone write up something on what we’d expect from the ideal AI risk nonprofit, either, so as a layperson in a complicated field, I don’t think I’m well equipped to judge MIRI’s effectiveness myself. >>> **u/crivtox** [+2] *Closed Time Loop Enthusiast* (9 hours later) >>> >>> Yeah , though there are not much more ai safety nonprofits either . >>> And all of them are doing different parts of basic research so Its difficult to tell at this point which ones will end up being relevant . >>> >>> How much competent researchers consider the problem important enough to work on it will probably be more important that money , unless you had the enormous amounts of money necessary to change that . >>> >>> Miri has had some impact on the field , independently on how useful their research ends up being . >>> But its not very clear if them having more money would change anything significant . >> **u/GaBeRockKing** [+3] *Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857* (9 hours later) >> >> I have my amazon smile donation set to give money to MIRI, but that's mostly just because I think it's funny. My total donation has ended up being $3.62 so far, which I guess is enough for EY to buy most of a cup of coffee. > **u/xamueljones** [+5] *My arch-enemy is entropy* (an hour later) > > So I'm planning to start my first ever quest. TL;DR the quest is about having strange dreams where you explore a world of horror in a bombed city. > > Type - Exploration/Mystery/Experimentation > > Genre - Horror/Mystery/Journey > > Here's my current [draft](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JHLywZ8JPwUhB5CrGHwBW2dZEzShti6KAYdWhOsDLCI/edit) of the first chapter for anyone interested. > > But I have questions about running a quest that I hope people here can provide advice on: > > * I want to do an exploration/mystery style quest. This means that I don't want offer any choices and every post will be write-ins only. Should I expect issues with this? > * I have no idea what would be better to post this quest to. SpaceBattles or SufficientVelocity (or some third option I haven't considered). Or should I go with both and combine votes from both sites? > * I dislike quests where the character does things out-of-character depending on the vote. So I want to do a trait system where the character will have bonuses or maluses depending in how in-line the vote is with their (determined) personality. The trait system is inspired by [Dragon Ball: After the End](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/dragon-ball-after-the-end.30940/). Since it sounds like it might conflict with my desire to only allow write-ins, will this be a problem? > * What style of voting would work best? I know of [NetTally](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/nettally-vote-tally-program.508853/) and am tentatively deciding on approval voting. > * A lot of quests have game mechanics, but I want the quest to be character-driven and to focus on the actions taken rather than stats. Will I run into issues without having stats? > * Anything else I should be aware of? >> **u/best_cat** [+3] (5 hours later) >> >> I've seen some threads where the Quest Master ends update posts with a note like, "voting opens 12 hours after this post" to give people a chance to discuss write in plans. >> >> In your case, I might insert an extra step. >> >> You make an update. Voters have 24 hours to suggest plans. You make a post that summarizes the top plans and opens things for voting. >> >> You can even add a multiplier for plans that are especially in character >>> **u/xamueljones** [+3] *My arch-enemy is entropy* (8 hours later) >>> >>> >You make an update. Voters have 24 hours to suggest plans. You make a post that summarizes the top plans and opens things for voting. >>> >>> Yeah a moratorium would work well for that, and when I lift the moratorium in 24 hours, I can then post the plans made. Thanks! >>>> **u/None** [+1] (21 hours later) >>>> >>>> I would suggest keeping the moratorium shorter than 24 hours; maybe two or three. Vary it depending on how much discussion you think there will be. >> **u/callmesalticidae** [+2] *writes worldbuilding books* (2 hours later) >> >> I’ll think about the rest and post when I’m no longer on mobile, but SV is the generally seen as the forum to go to for Quests. > **u/None** [+5] (2 hours later) > > [deleted] >> **u/callmesalticidae** [+2] *writes worldbuilding books* (2 hours later) >> >> I’m doing something like that with [Salticidae Philosophiae](https://saltphil.wordpress.com) >> >> EDIT: got the link to work, finally >> **u/None** [-3] (2 hours later) >> >> [removed] >>> **u/sicutumbo** [+5] (2 hours later) >>> >>> So this bot seems to work by finding comments with the string "Sarah", "John" or "terminated" in them and making the relevant reply to that comment. >>> >>> Honestly, I don't think it adds much to any given conversation, was probably made just to get experience making a Reddit bot, and should be banned. >>>> **u/alexanderwales** [+4] *Time flies like an arrow* (12 hours later) >>>> >>>> Just gave it a ban. >>>>> **u/sicutumbo** [+1] (12 hours later) >>>>> >>>>> Thank you. >>> **u/callmesalticidae** [+2] *writes worldbuilding books* (2 hours later) >>> >>> No no, John FOWLER. >>> **u/Killako1** [+1] (9 hours later) >>> >>> Bad bot > **u/EmmaJuicyClementine** [+2] (3 hours later) > > If anyone else here is poly like me, I found a great little poly discord server here: [https://discord.gg/AamDEGC](https://discord.gg/AamDEGC) > > It's an awesome community, and I definitely recommend checking it out >> **u/EPPiano** [+1] (13 hours later) >> >> Poly? >>> **u/causalchain** [+1] (16 hours later) >>> >>> Polyamorous >> **u/DaystarEld** [+1] *Pokémon Professor* (a day later) >> >> Neat, I'll check it out, thanks for posting it! > **u/None** [+1] (9 hours later) > > Anyone know a good intro to Bayesian extreme-value modeling? ---