I did the IB diploma program too. Except I live in Spain, so I had to follow both the Spanish education system and the IB diploma at the same time. We actually had three different philosophy subjects in two years: Philosophy, History of Philosophy and TOK. All three were absolute shit. Well, we did actually learn about the history of philosophy: we had to memorize every detail about ancient philosophers' thoughts, from the presocratics (Thales, Pythagoras...) to Nietzsche (nothing beyond 1900 though). We didn't actually learn much about actual philosophy (i.e. the basics of how the universe works, the principles of observation, deduction, induction, logic, reductionism, what words mean, etc.). So we could spend months talking about how Plato's intelligible world, but we didn't hear once about reductionism or cognitive science. I guess it really depends on what teacher you get.
Anyway, this has motivated me and I've thinking of writing a book in Spanish covering some of LessWrong's basic topics to see if I can reduce the cultural gap a bit. Or at least starting a blog.
Also it's worth mentioning that an IB diploma is virtually useless to access Spanish universities. I could literally have left my final exams blank if I had felt like doing so, with no practical consequences.
¡Hola! Yo vivo en España, pero de momento no estoy muy metido en esto de LessWrong. Leí unos cuantos artículos y como me parecieron interesantes decidí crear un usuario. Ahora mismo tengo poco tiempo libre (y poca capacidad de concentración) así que no puedo leérmelos todos. Además, por ahora prefiero no mezclar mi identidad online con el mundo real, así que no, no voy a apuntarme a ninguna quedada.
No creo que encuentres muchos otros españoles por aquí. Siempre he pensado que a internet le faltan páginas "geeks" (como xkcd, LessWrong... quizá geek no es la palabra correcta) en español. Puedo escribir en inglés pero me siento como... oprimido por la falta de vocabulario.
I still have my doubts about cryonics. I believe people here are a bit too optimistic about the future. How confident are you that the “molecular nanotechnology” necessary to repair cells will be developed within 100 or 200 years? If Alcor had been founded in 1800, would it have survived the industrial revolution and both world wars?
About neuropreservation, is it that easy to grow a new body? I mean, there is a big difference between just fixing some broken cells and completely creating a whole body. Even if it's possible, it'll probably be much more expensive (and thus you'll be less likely to get revived). And unless the new body is exactly like the old one, your motor system will be screwed up.
And you need rejuvenation technology too. Alcor claims that "By the time it becomes possible to revive cryonics patients, especially today's cryonics patients, biological aging as we know it today will not exist". I don't know how likely that is, but there is a difference between stopping aging and rejuvenating. What if they find a simple DNA mutation that stops aging, but it can only be applied before birth? In the worst case you'll wake up and die again a few weeks later. You may be lucky and only have to spend a few decades in a 90-year-old body.
Well, maybe, but in this thread I counted 14 people that lived in English-speaking countries and only 3 that didn't. And there doesn't seem to be anyone Spanish (which is the most spoken language after English and Chinese) in the whole site.
Hello, I've been lurking LessWrong for some time, and I have finally decided to make an account to add my comments. I also expect to post an article every now and then.
I am Spanish, which seems rare because it's hard to find non-English people here. I'm studying Computer Science and maybe in the future I'll get a master's degree in AI. I'm interested in computers, the brain, AI, rationality, futurism, transhumanism, etc. Oh, and I love Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.
Don't count much on it though. It's only a future project. It depends on how my next years in university go.