This is a slightly emotional response off the back of a discussion with a heavily TESCREAList family member recently. Which concluded with his belief there are a very small number of humans with incredible information processing abilities that know the real truth about humanity’s future. He knows I hate Yudkowsky, I know he considers him one of the most important voices of our time. It’s not fun listening to someone I love and value heading into borderline scientology territory. I kind of feel like, just with Peterson a few years ago, this is the next post-truth battle on our hands.
Isn’t Yudkowsky the nimrod from LessWrong? I’ve never actually met a fan of his in real life, but I empathize with your situation.
I’d never heard of Yudkowsky until a few months ago, until my brother ruined a dinner with doomerism dressed up as credible science, and I had to dig deep to discover the insidious bullshit. Big thanks to Timnit Gebru and Emile Torres on that front.