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Last activity 4 days ago · 1073 ideas

Veritula – Meta

Discuss Veritula itself. For feedback and suggestions.

Dennis Hackethal, Tom Nassis, and 5 others

Last activity 8 days ago · 85 ideas

Sleep

Sleep is a challenge for many, including me. Let's see what we know. No medical advice, follow at your own risk.

Tyler Mills, Dennis Hackethal, and Benjamin Davies

Last activity 9 days ago · 7 ideas

Personalized Short-Video Feeds Serve Curiosity Better Than Films

TikTok, Instagram/Facebook Reels and YouTube Shorts, compared with fixed films for serving curiosity, not every purpose. Objections and replies below are proposals, not settled refutations. Background, not endorsements: Dennis’s Unconflicted and Fun Criterion vs Whim Worship.

Moritz Wallawitsch

Last activity 14 days ago · 39 ideas

Fallibilism vs. Cynicism

https://libertythroughreason.com/fallibilism-vs-cynicism/

Dennis Hackethal, Rob Rosenbaum, and Knut Sondre Sæbø

Last activity 15 days ago · 20 ideas

Known, Unknown and Unknowable

When it comes to knowledge, there are three categories. Things we know, things we don't know, and things that are unknowable. Religion and mysticism can come from confusing the unknown with the unknowable. Religion can provide a protection against the reality of facing the unknown, which is the only way to create knowledge.

Zelalem Mekonnen, Dennis Hackethal, and 2 others

Last activity 16 days ago · 596 ideas

How Does Veritula Work?

New to Veritula? Start here to get oriented.

Dennis Hackethal, Zelalem Mekonnen, and 8 others

Last activity 19 days ago · 55 ideas

Finance and Investing

A discussion about making money in financial markets. Nothing in this discussion should be taken as financial advice.

Benjamin Davies, Zelalem Mekonnen, and 3 others

Last activity 20 days ago · 106 ideas

Animal Consciousness

Figuring out whether animals have consciousness has implications for how we think about animal welfare, and also how we think about creativity

Dirk Meulenbelt, Dennis Hackethal, and Vincent Brunsch

USD 150.00 bounty

Last activity 28 days ago · 76 ideas

Hiccdown Development Notes

Notes about developing the Ruby gem Hiccdown.

Dennis Hackethal

USD 150.00 bounty

Last activity 29 days ago · 7 ideas

autopair.js

Issue tracker for the autopairing + typethrough package. https://github.com/dchacke/autopair.js https://www.npmjs.com/package/autopair

Dennis Hackethal

Last activity about 1 month ago · 322 ideas

Hard to Vary or Hardly Usable?

https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hard-to-vary-or-hardly-usable

Dennis Hackethal, Fitz Doud, and 5 others

Last activity about 1 month ago · 123 ideas

Addiction as Entrenchment

Not a doctor or therapist. This discussion contains no medical advice.

Dennis Hackethal, Knut Sondre Sæbø, and 3 others

Last activity about 2 months ago · 94 ideas

Life Choice: Should Someone Highly Interested in AGI Research Jeopardize Their Existing Career to Pursue It?

I have a BS + MS in optical engineering, and have had a profitable three or so years in the field as an engineer. I enjoy learning about and applying physics, including optical physics, but this makes up a tiny percentage of the tasks performed as an "engineer" so far in my experience, and I see no sign of change on the horizon. Many of the tasks I am assigned seem eminently automatable, and performing them is excruciating for me (though I recognize my good fortune overall). Even when there are micro-problems which require creativity to solve, I still find the process painful, given that they are other people's problems rather than my own. It is the same pain of school: creativity forced to work toward answers to questions not asked. So, where to draw the line? I think I have fallen in love with AGI research, having followed the area for years, learning and reading bits and pieces. I've been working on independent research in my free time for over a year, in addition to related content (for several years) which is meaningful, creative, educational, largely very fun to produce -- and perhaps ultimately valuable. I'm confident I could publish ideas which will be of interest to the field, and that I would be happy working on all of these things for many years to come. The question: Should I take a hiatus from my career to pursue independent research (and related content creation), full-time, for some number of months?

Tyler Mills, Dennis Hackethal, and 3 others

Last activity 2 months ago · 81 ideas

Can qualia be separated from personhood?

Can a program which is not a person constitute an experience? Imagine you are in a pitch black room. Before your eyes, a spotlight illuminates an apple for 5 seconds before darkness returns. Among other things, your mind will render the image of the apple for the 5 seconds, then it will not (afterimages aside). Assume the physical stimulus is identical for the whole 5 seconds. Itemized discussion below.

Tyler Mills and Dennis Hackethal

Last activity 2 months ago · 9 ideas

‘Hard to specify’

Embedded on https://www.dirkswebsite.nl/blog/hard-to-specify/

Dennis Hackethal

Last activity 3 months ago · 59 ideas

Misc. Conjectures Re: AGI and Evolution

Seeking criticism of various ideas relating to ongoing research into AGI, creativity, personhood and open-ended evolution.

Tyler Mills, Benjamin Davies, and 2 others

Last activity 4 months ago · 122 ideas

Choosing a place to live

I am approaching a point in my life where I will soon have the financial freedom to choose where in the world I live. I want to discuss various criteria for criticising different places. I am currently a citizen of New Zealand and UK.

Benjamin Davies, Dennis Hackethal, and 3 others

Last activity 5 months ago · 120 ideas

Nutrition

Benjamin Davies, Dennis Hackethal, and 2 others

Last activity 5 months ago · 146 ideas

Abortion

Dennis Hackethal, Ante Škugor, and Anon Anon

Last activity 6 months ago · 153 ideas

Copyright

We discuss whether it would be moral to abolish copyright

Dirk Meulenbelt, Dennis Hackethal, and 3 others

Last activity 6 months ago · 74 ideas

Are AI models narrowly creative?

Recent conversations have revealed that I cannot argue against the notion that current AI systems create new knowledge (and so are creative in some domain). Yet, David Deutsch has argued that creativity is a binary property of programs, and those that have it are people (including AGIs), who can create all possible explanatory knowledge. I am not of the mind that current AI is AGI. So I will try to iron all this out, here.

Tyler Mills, Edwin de Wit, and 4 others

Last activity 7 months ago · 8 ideas

What's wrong with probability?

I'd like to clarify the status of probability-related thinking and everyday terms like "probably", "likely", "expectation", etc.

Tyler Mills, Benjamin Davies, and Dennis Hackethal

Last activity 7 months ago · 77 ideas

Jury Duty

@zelalem-mekonnen shared in my Twitter space that he has been ‘summoned’ for jury duty. It seems strange and incompatible with freedom that the courts can just ‘command’ you to perform a service for them.

Dennis Hackethal, Zelalem Mekonnen, and Benjamin Davies

Last activity 8 months ago · 6 ideas

NZ Policy Reforms

Ideas around comprehensive reforms for NZ, aimed at attacking its continued decline and impoverishment, and turning it into a first-world and prosperous nation

Ben GK and Benjamin Davies

Last activity 8 months ago · 21 ideas

Bedrock

@dirk-meulenbelt’s article https://www.dirkswebsite.nl/blog/bedrock/

Dennis Hackethal and Dirk Meulenbelt

Last activity 9 months ago · 6 ideas

Objective Knowledge

Does it exist?

Dirk Meulenbelt and Dennis Hackethal

Last activity 9 months ago · 37 ideas

Arguments Against Bayesian Epistemology

Bayesian epistemology says that knowledge works like this: you have a theory, you see evidence, and the evidence raises your confidence in the theory. That's how you learn. The math behind this is Bayes' theorem, a formula for updating probabilities when new information arrives.

Dirk Meulenbelt and Dennis Hackethal

Last activity 9 months ago · 16 ideas

Social Skills

I’m kind of socially retarded, but explicit study of social skills has helped. Here are some things I’ve learned.

Dennis Hackethal

Last activity 9 months ago · 14 ideas

Persephone vs Axis Tilt

In a recent Twitter space, @liberty-fitz-claridge asked how Veritula would model the clash between the Persephone myth and the axis-tilt theory of the seasons, as compared in The Beginning of Infinity chapter 1. This discussion shows how. It explains the rational preference for the axis-tilt theory over the Persephone myth not in terms of which we find harder to vary, but in terms of the former having no pending criticisms, whereas the latter does have pending criticisms.

Dennis Hackethal

Last activity 9 months ago · 12 ideas

Is Self-Replication Required for the Growth of Knowledge?

Either in biological evolution, or the evolution of ideas (programs) in a mind, is a mechanism for self-replication required for knowledge to grow? That is, do entities within the system need to be able to recreate themselves, or cause themselves to be recreated, for there to be progress? Why?

Tyler Mills, Dennis Hackethal, and Benjamin Davies

Last activity 9 months ago · 30 ideas

Real names vs pseudonyms online

When signing up to Veritula, we are all asked to use our true first and last names. I would like to discuss using true names online, not only on Veritula but on other social media too. This is not something I have thought about much. I currently use pseudonyms everywhere except Instagram/FB and Veritula.

Benjamin Davies, Dennis Hackethal, and Zelalem Mekonnen

Last activity 10 months ago · 7 ideas

Focus without discipline

I’d welcome criticism of my theory of focus. Specifically, the claim that focus does not depend on discipline.

Edwin de Wit and Benjamin Davies

Last activity 10 months ago · 56 ideas

Virtues

In my desire to become a more virtuous person, I want to develop a better explicit understanding of virtues. Let’s discuss them!

Benjamin Davies, Dennis Hackethal, and Zelalem Mekonnen

Last activity 10 months ago · 1 idea

Criticize My Resume

Per my current employment contract, my work hour is flexible. So I am looking for additional work. I cleaned up my resume and would love all criticisms and suggestions.

Zelalem Mekonnen

Last activity 10 months ago · 10 ideas

The Anatomy of Compromise Book Club

Full citation: Ayn Rand. ‘The Anatomy of Compromise.’ Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (pp. 157-163). Kindle Edition.

Dennis Hackethal and Zelalem Mekonnen

Last activity 10 months ago · 0 ideas

Are Private Lessons Immoral?

https://libertythroughreason.com/are-private-lessons-immoral/

Dennis Hackethal

Last activity 10 months ago · 33 ideas

Myth of the Framework Book Club

Full citation: Popper, Karl. The Myth of the Framework: In Defence of Science and Rationality. Kindle Edition.

Dennis Hackethal

Last activity 10 months ago · 34 ideas

Is correspondence true (in CR)?

This thread is based on Lucas Smalldon's talk and article on correspondence: https://barelymorethanatweet.com/. Later Dennis Hackethal followed up with criticism on X: https://x.com/dchackethal/status/1977089334294516124. This is my attempt to continue the discussion here on Veritula.

Erik Orrje, Benjamin Davies, and 2 others

Last activity 11 months ago · 30 ideas

CR terms

A discussion aiming to identify and develop Critical Rationalist terminology

Benjamin Davies and Dennis Hackethal

Last activity 11 months ago · 99 ideas

Fabric of Reality Book Club

We discuss David Deutsch’s first book, The Fabric of Reality.

Zelalem Mekonnen, Dirk Meulenbelt, and 4 others

Last activity 11 months ago · 23 ideas

Are we always wrong?

The statement that “we are always wrong” is contentious, even within fallibilism. Concepts like truth and falsity, degrees of truth, or better and worse explanations all come with their own pitfalls. In this discussion, I hope we can reach a consensus on how to describe fallibilism in a way that acknowledges and addresses these challenges.

Edwin de Wit, Zelalem Mekonnen, and 3 others

Last activity 11 months ago · 32 ideas

Criticisms of ‘Based Brief’

One of the people running ‘Based Brief’ has requested criticism, specifically of their latest newsletter titled ‘Honduras rugpulls Próspera and other ZEDEs’. These criticisms aren’t meant to be exhaustive.

Dennis Hackethal and Dirk Meulenbelt

Last activity 12 months ago · 47 ideas

Keeping Tidy

A discussion exploring problems and solutions related to physical and digital tidiness.

Benjamin Davies, Dennis Hackethal, and Zelalem Mekonnen

Last activity 12 months ago · 65 ideas

Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

A discussion with Logan Chipkin. Shared with permission. Others are welcome to contribute.

Dennis Hackethal, Ante Škugor, and Knut Sondre Sæbø

Last activity 12 months ago · 74 ideas

Baking Pizza in a Home Oven

Iteratively improving on pizza at home. Inspired by itsdoughguy on Instagram but mistakes are my own.

Dennis Hackethal

Last activity about 1 year ago · 9 ideas

Quiet

Dennis Hackethal and Lola Trimble

Last activity about 1 year ago · 44 ideas

Criticisms of Zcash

Have seen a lot on X recently about Zcash becoming the next digital currency. Would be fun to hear criticisms of why it would not. Arguments of any kind are welcome. :)

Erik Orrje, Benjamin Davies, and 2 others

Last activity about 1 year ago · 0 ideas

Executable Ideas

https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/executable-ideas

Dennis Hackethal

Last activity about 1 year ago · 84 ideas

The spirit of the Fun Criterion

What exactly is the spirit/meaning of the Fun Criterion?

Edwin de Wit and Dennis Hackethal

Last activity almost 2 years ago · 69 ideas

Objectivist Criticisms of Anarcho-Capitalism

Top objectivist criticisms of anarcho-capitalism and counter-criticisms. The objectivist stance is that people need one shared government to write laws and resolve disputes. The anarcho-capitalist stance is that private arbitration services and judges could not only do that, too, so that no government is necessary, but could actually do it better. This discussion is for objectivist criticisms of anarcho-capitalism in particular. Other common criticisms have been addressed here.

Dennis Hackethal

Last activity about 2 years ago · 23 ideas

Children “Easily” Solving Family Problems

Slighly modified archive of a discussion tree from the old Veritula site, Nov 2023. The creation dates of the ideas were not retained but newly set. The old ‘about’ section said: Here are some criticisms of, and comments on, an article called ‘Children “Easily” Solving Family Problems’. Read the linked article and the one it references before you continue reading here.

Dennis Hackethal

Last activity about 2 years ago · 4 ideas

Kants Pädagogik

Wir wollen Kants Text ‘Über Pädagogik’ verstehen und diskutieren: https://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/book/view/kant_paedagogik_1803?p=7

Roswitha Kant

Last activity over 2 years ago · 34 ideas

Does Compulsory Schooling Serve to Liberate Children?

Reproduction of a discussion tree between Dennis Hackethal and Roswitha Kant from the old Veritula website. The creation dates of the ideas were not retained but newly set. The discussion originally took place in German between August and October 2023 and can be viewed in full here.

Dennis Hackethal