Hullo,
I'm hoping for your feedback. I recently finished a sort of beta of a website that allows users to explore and vote on thought experiments:
https://thought-experiment-explorer.vercel.app/
The spirit behind it is somewhat similar to LessWrong's: I think people should examine their lives and reasoning more. I also love gamification and broadening the appeal of academic things.
It has a small batch of some very famous ones, but as I improve the site, I'll add a lot more, as well a page that lets you search and filter by type (such as "utilitarian" or "non-Western"). The About page notes some other plans.
I hope you like the idea and general design so far, but I'd love to hear critiques and suggestions.
Thanks much!
Kat
Thanks, I'll add these to the More page!
I understand the interest, but I will probably never add this, cuz it would disrupt the cleanliness and simplicity of the site, come with a host of issues like moderation, and change the nature of it into something more like Reddit or LessWrong.
I know this post is old, but in the results for Roko's Basilisk it seemed most relevant for the following.
LLMs, by the nature of the way that they work (by generating content based on patterns gleaned from massive data sets and training), will never be capable of actual "thought."
It's kind of like how elephant intelligence is probably limited forever, because despite having more neurons in their brains than humans, they only have a third as many as us in their cerebral cortex -- the structure/concentrations are all wrong for evolution in this direction. Worrying about LLMs gaining sentience is kind of like focusing on elephants becoming as smart as humans while ignoring... (read 383 more words →)
This underscores the need for me to add some further thought/guidance/context about these post-answer. :D
Counting unanswered ones is a great idea, thanks. Same friend said I should use "equivalent" for Drowning Child, and I agree about Blind Men.
Deceiving Demon is actually the train of thought that led Descartes to, "I think, therefore I am." (It's my favorite.)
"But there is I know not what sort of Deceivour very powerful and very crafty, who always strives to deceive Me; without Doubt therefore I am, if he can decieve me; And let him Deceive me as much as he can, yet he can never make me not to Be, whilst I think that I am. Wherefore I may lay this down as a Principle, that whenever this sentence I am, I exist, is spoken or thought of by Me, ’tis necessarily True."
Thanks! Every experiment I add needs to be somehow coerced into a yes/no question, because that's the way the site achieves interactivity without complexity. It's very pop compared to LessWrong's forum format.
But I definitely want to fix it if you think a question needs to be rephrased. On the site, that communication can be achieved via the Contact section, but maybe in light of this I will add a feedback icon directly to the navbar that opens a simple text submission modal.
Can you tell me which one(s) you wanted to change and how? A friend has already suggested I remove the "or even irrationality" part from Buridan's Ass.