Discussion
Because the concept makes no sense, the book Suicidal Empathy, whoever really wrote it (I very much doubt that Gad Saad had much to do with it, besides hashing out a general outline with a ghostwriter or an #LLM) cannot possibly make sense.
But it doesn't need to. The title is the memetic thing, the all-in-one diagnosis of the leftists' sicknesses as Musk and Saad imagine them.
(cont'd)
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality doesn't need to make sense. It exists in much the same way as an ultracheap mass printing of the Christian Bible: it's a sacred text so sacred that nobody needs to read it. "In here resides all Truth™," the true believer says of the Bible (no matter how corrupt and degraded the text itself) or of Yudkowsky's solitary creative achievement.
(not much more)
I'll let you in on a little secret: I wrote this thread partly by way of deciding whether I want to bother with reading, or even with skimming, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. I will occasionally nerve myself to read intellectually twisted writing to see what it's actually like and reassure myself that yes, my inferences about it are correct. Right now I'm just...spouting off. I haven't actually seen the damn thing.
(cont'd)
So would it be worth my while? Would it be educational? Do I have some obscure duty to read Harry Potter and the Method of Rationality because I've tangled with its author a bit on Twitter?
Arguably Yudkowsky merits that much baseline respect in such a situation: while I argue that it's not necessary to read a book if you know enough outside information to dissuade you, I shouldn't have any reason to fear Yudkowsky's text.
(cont'd)
Maybe I've talked myself into having a peep. Not sure yet. I hope the fediverse will forgive me for using it as a sounding-board. It's a heck of a lot more rewarding than "debate" with Joe Rogan or Lex Fridman.
(Gawd just what is it with Lex Fridman. Has he taken human life or something?? He's spectacularly creepy even for a right-wing creep.)
~Chara of Pnictogen
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