David Pinsof
@DavidPinsof
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Evolutionary social scientist, co-creator of @cah, co-host of Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast), blogs about bullshit at https://t.co/FODwrznZRX
Los Angeles, CA
Joined November 2012
When people say AGI or AGI timelines, I don’t know what they’re talking about. They say it’s an AI that can do any job. Instantaneously or with training?How much training? Equal for every job? Does it have to be the same AI? Does “job” include NBA player? Does it have a body?
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One should be sceptical of belief systems when: - They are difficult to falsify - They are justified by armchair arguments and bespoke concepts with little connection to well-established academic literatures - They are in tension with the verdicts of markets and superforecasters
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Ideas are overrated. The correlation between how optimistic I am about the future—and how positively I view the human condition—is correlated at nearly 100% with how well I slept the night before.
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The first (?) observed lethal coalitional attack by wild bonobos, a species with a reputation for making love, not war. A group of females apparently killed a male group-member:
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Wow, big news. One of the pillars of social psychology turns out to be false. The story is itself an example of how deception (and self-deception) actually works—by being in the self-interest of the deceivers—and with a significant risk of them getting caught and disgraced.
The fall of "When prophecies fail": Another social psychology classic turns out to be based on fabrications and lies. In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. In “When Prophecy Fails “ (1956), the
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Discovered @DavidPinsof on @ChrisWillx's Modern Wisdom podcast 🎧 His take that all opinions are basically status signals? Mind-bending. Really interesting read on his Substack: https://t.co/VPkO63Ye12
#ModernWisdom #Reading
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New episode with @DavidPinsof out now on all platforms! This was one of those where I'm able to throw all the tricky questions at a world class expert, sit back and enjoy the profound insights. Check it out, filmed in beautiful 4K in a crazy LA warehouse! https://t.co/81Ra9C8A7P
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: "abstract, moral disagreement between partisans may be overstated."
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What explains the contents of political belief systems? A widespread view is that they derive from abstract values, like equality, tolerance, and authority. Here, we challenge this view, arguing...
"Across six distinct empirical tests with U.S. adults, we find that moral differences between the left and right are smaller than what is measured with the moral foundations questionnaire." https://t.co/lFBnRiifnD
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Cool new paper showing a partisan tendency to lie to increase money going to a fellow partisan. If some of us lie to benefit allies, then surely we will exaggerate, propagandize, and BS for the same purpose, which is way less risky. https://t.co/fP289VCP2S HT @jayvanbavel
osf.io
According to canonical normative theories in philosophy, moral transgressions–like lying–are equally wrong regardless of whom they help or harm. In contrast, recent research suggests that people use...
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Turns out there’s way more demand for blog posts calling bullshit on philosophical theories in normative ethics than I thought.
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I used to be a utilitarian, but I drifted away, without ever clearly pinpointing what I found was wrong with it. @davidpinsof is a fellow lapsed utilitarian, and he sets out with great clarity why—utilitarianism is bullshit. Indeed, it is: https://t.co/I4aeIEdgBU
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🎯"At the end of the day, our feelings do not tell us where they come from or why they exist. The only way to figure that out is to do some evolutionary psychology."
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New post in which I describe the moral philosophy of utilitarianism using the most predictable possible word. (Link below).
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Good list of social paradoxes from @DavidPinsof, cited in @sapinker's "When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . ."
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I was really honoured to be invited on one of my favourite podcasts to talk to two of my favourite social scientists @DavidPinsof @DavePietrasz @EPthepod. Among other things, we talked about: - beliefs - evolution - politics - Jordan Peterson
This week we talk to @danwilliamsphil about belief. Is it veridical or social or both or neither? https://t.co/4XXSCZHthl
https://t.co/xtHmfJnEXw
https://t.co/wzstxX7ylu
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Victory never felt so bad.
@clairlemon The only winner is @DavidPinsof’s alliance theory of politics
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People with good ideas really need to learn how to write well. If they don’t, their good ideas will be defeated by well-written bad ideas.
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It’s tempting to cultivate the belief that the universe—or at least our world—has a purpose and is going somewhere. Don’t, advises @davidpinsof—it doesn’t, and unless incentives apply, things simply go to shit, and here’s why: https://t.co/JSvejOlBzb
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