31
Yudkowsky denies the accusations! several thousand words in, and ten years after they were made (x.com)
submitted 9 months ago by [M] to c/sneerclub@awful.systems
48 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

yes, that's his high-volume account, linked from @ESYudkowsky

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 15 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I understand where he probably got the neologism "glomarize" from (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomar_Explorer) but his willingness to beat you in the face with it until you accept it is a big part of what makes his writing style so offputting. And, uh, this level of enthusiasm for specialized jargon continues to fail to overcome the cult allegations.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 8 child comments
    •
  • [–] 13 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    in the shipped club. straight up 'glomarizing it'. and by 'it', haha, well. let's justr say. My peanits.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    One of the only reasons I'm hesitant to call Rationalism a cult in its own right is that Yudkowsky and friends always seem to respond to this element of cultiness by saying "oh, let me explain our in-group jargon in exhaustive detail so that you can more or less understand what we're trying to say" rather than "you just need to buy our book and attend some meetings and talk to the guru and wear this robe..."

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 14 points 9 months ago

    I would say that the in-group jargon is more of a retention tactic than an attraction tactic, although it can become that for people who are desperately looking for an ordered view of the world. Certainly I've seen it a lot in recovering Scientologists, expressing how that edifice of jargon, colloquialisms, and redefined words shaped their worldview and how they related to other people. In this case here, if you've been nodding along for a while and want to continue to be one of the cool guys, how could you not glomarize? Peek coolly out from beneath your fedora and neither confirm nor deny?

    I will agree that the ratsphere has softer boundaries and is not particularly competently managed as a cult. As you allude to, too, there isn't a clear induction ritual or psychological turning point, just a mass of material that you're supposed to absorb and internalize over a necessarily lengthy stretch of time. Hence the most clearly identifiable cults are splinter groups.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent