LessWrong 2.0

Aug 24, 2017

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by Eliezer_Yudkowsky

The first sequence of thee Machine in the Ghost aims to communicate the dissonance and divergence between our hereditary history, our present-day biology, and our ultimate aspirations. This will require digging deeper than is common in introductions to evolution for non-biologists, which often restrict their attention to surface-level features of natural selection.

An Alien God

"A curious aspect of the theory of evolution," said Jacques Monod, "is that everybody thinks he understands it." A human being, looking at

The Wonder of Evolution

Followup to: An Alien God The wonder of evolution is that it works at all. I mean that literally: If you want to marvel at evolution,

Evolutions Are Stupid (But Work Anyway)

Followup to: An Alien God, The Wonder of Evolution Yesterday, I wrote: Science has a very exact idea of the capabilities of evolution.

No Evolutions for Corporations or Nanodevices

"The laws of physics and the rules of math don't cease to apply. That leads me to believe that evolution doesn't stop. That further leads me

Evolving to Extinction

Followup to: Evolutions Are Stupid It is a very common misconception that an evolution works for the good of its species. Can you rememb

The Tragedy of Group Selectionism

Before 1966, it was not unusual to see serious biologists advocating evolutionary hypotheses that we would now regard as magical thinking.

Fake Optimization Criteria

Followup to: Fake Justification, The Tragedy of Group Selectionism I've previously dwelt in considerable length upon forms of rationaliza

Adaptation-Executers, not Fitness-Maximizers

"Individual organisms are best thought of as adaptation-executers rather than as fitness-maximizers." —John Tooby and Leda Cosmides,

Evolutionary Psychology

Followup to: An Alien God, Adaptation-Executers not Fitness-Maximizers Like "IRC chat" or "TCP/IP protocol", the phrase "reproductive org

An Especially Elegant Evpsych Experiment

Followup to: Adaptation-Executers not Fitness-Maximizers, The Evolutionary-Cognitive Boundary "In a 1989 Canadian study, adults were aske

Superstimuli and the Collapse of Western Civilization

At least three people have died playing online games for days without rest. People have lost their spouses, jobs, and children to World of

Thou Art Godshatter

Followup to: An Alien God, Adaptation-Executers not Fitness-Maximizers, Evolutionary Psychology Before the 20th century, not a single hum

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