LessWrong classics: “A Bayesian superintelligence, hooked up to a webcam of a falling apple, would invent general relativity by the third frame” - eviltoast
  • froztbyte@awful.systems
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    1 year ago

    I don’t think there’s anything good about the writing, but there’s a few things that stand out ito mechanics employed and to which outcome effect they appear to be aiming

    • (bad) storyteller style (nerds love 'em some stories as much as the next, even those who think they don’t)
    • touching on sufficiently many topics (“oh wow he’s thought about this so hard”
    • going just far enough in detail to convince that there’s some kind of deeper aspect/more (“wow he knows so much about this”)

    even this horrible essay pulled the infomercial “but wait, there’s more!” at least 5 times. a terrible Plot Twist because he can’t figure out how to layer his story devices any better