16

An opposition between altruism and selfishness seems important to Yud. 23-year-old Yud said "I was pretty much entirely altruistic in terms of raw motivations" and his Pathfinder fic has a whole theology of selfishness. His protagonists have a deep longing to be world-historical figures and be admired by the world. Dreams of controlling and manipulating people to get what you want are woven into his community like mould spores in a condemned building.

Has anyone unpicked this? Is talking about selfishness and altrusm common in LessWrong like pretending to use Bayesian statistics?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] diz@awful.systems 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

This is what peak altruism looks like: being a lazy fuck with a cult, and incidentally happening to help hype up investments into the very unfriendly AI you're supposed to save the world from. All while being too lazy to learn anything about any actual AI technologies.

In all seriousness, all of his stuff is just extreme narcissism. Altruism is good, therefore he's the most altruistic person in the world. Smart is good, therefore he's the mostest smartest person. Their whole cult can be derived entirely from such self serving axioms.

[-] CinnasVerses@awful.systems 6 points 3 days ago

Selfishness sounds like it might be his way of thinking about some of this (I don't think he could allow himself to think "I am a fundraiser and pulp writer and married with no other achievements" but I think he knows he likes to be adored and control things).

When we get a proper history of this subculture, with names and dates and diagrams of the polycules and play parties and group homes, it is going to be wild.

this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2025
16 points (100.0% liked)

SneerClub

1196 readers
1 users here now

Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.

AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)

This is sneer club, not debate club. Unless it's amusing debate.

[Especially don't debate the race scientists, if any sneak in - we ban and delete them as unsuitable for the server.]

See our twin at Reddit

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS