Eliezer Yudkowsky Quotes

Quotes about:

• Moore's Law of Mad Science: Every eighteen months, the minimum IQ necessary to destroy the world drops by one point.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Science, Law, Mad

  169 Copy quote

• You are personally responsible for becoming more ethical than the society you grew up in.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Becoming, Ethical, Responsible

  47 Copy quote

• Many have stood their ground and faced the darkness when it comes for them. Fewer come for the darkness and force it to face them.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Bravery, Darkness, Faces

  "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality". Harry Potter fan fiction by Eliezer Yudkowsky, www.hpmor.com. 2010 - 2015.

  47 Copy quote

• Litmus test: If you can't describe Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage and explain why people find it counterintuitive, you don't know enough about economics to direct any criticism or praise at "capitalism" because you don't know what other people are referring to when they use that word.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Law, People, Criticism

  Comment as Eliezer Yudkowsky @yudkowsky, www.facebook.com. June 10, 2012.

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• By far the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  People, Danger, Artificial Intelligence

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• Remember, if you succeed in everything you try in life, you're living below your full potential and you should take up more difficult or daring things.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Trying, Full Potential, Succeed

  7 Copy quote

• If people got hit on the head by a baseball bat every week, pretty soon they would invent reasons why getting hit on the head with a baseball bat was a good thing.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Baseball, People, Bats

  "How to Seem (and Be) Deep" by Eliezer Yudkowsky, lesswrong.com. October 14, 2007.

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• There is no justice in the laws of nature, no term for fairness in the equations of motion. The Universe is neither evil, nor good, it simply does not care. The stars don't care, or the Sun, or the sky. But they don't have to! WE care! There IS light in the world, and it is US!

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Stars, Law, Sky

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• To confess your fallibility and then do nothing about it is not humble; it is boasting of your modesty.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Humble, Modesty, Rationality

  "Twelve Virtues of Rationality". Personal Website, yudkowsky.net.

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• Between hindsight bias, fake causality, positive bias, anchoring/priming, et cetera et cetera, and above all the dreaded confirmation bias, once an idea gets into your head, it's probably going to stay there.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Ideas, Fake, Causality

  "We Change Our Minds Less Often Than We Think" by Eliezer Yudkowsky, lesswrong.com. October 3, 2007.

  16 Copy quote

• I don't want to rule the universe. I just think it could be more sensibly organised.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Thinking, Want, Organised

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• If you handed [character] a glass that was 90% full, he'd tell you that the 10% empty part proved that no one really cared about water.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Character, Glasses, Water

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• Intelligence is the source of technology. If we can use technology to improve intelligence, that closes the loop and potentially creates a positive feedback cycle.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Technology, Use, Feedback

  11 Copy quote

• There were mysterious questions, but a mysterious answer was a contradiction in terms.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Answers, Mysterious, Contradiction

  "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality". Book by Eliezer Yudkowsky, February 28, 2010 - March 14, 2015.

  10 Copy quote

• Through rationality we shall become awesome, and invent and test systematic methods for making people awesome, and plot to optimize everything in sight, and the more fun we have the more people will want to join us.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Fun, Sight, People

  "Epistle to the New York Less Wrongians". www.lesswrong.com. April 21, 2011.

  5 Copy quote

• The police officer who puts their life on the line with no superpowers, no X-Ray vision, no super-strength, no ability to fly, and above all no invulnerability to bullets, reveals far greater virtue than Superman - who is only a mere superhero.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Superhero, Police, Vision

  "Superhero Bias" by Eliezer Yudkowsky, lesswrong.com. December 1, 2007.

  21 Copy quote

• If dragons were common, and you could look at one in the zoo - but zebras were a rare legendary creature that had finally been decided to be mythical - then there's a certain sort of person who would ignore dragons, who would never bother to look at dragons, and chase after rumors of zebras. The grass is always greener on the other side of reality. Which is rather setting ourselves up for eternal disappointment, eh? If we cannot take joy in the merely real, our lives shall be empty indeed.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Zoos, Zebras, Disappointment

  "Joy in the Merely Real". Summary of the Joy In The Merely Real sequence, wiki.lesswrong.com. October 2009.

  22 Copy quote

• When you are older, you will learn that the first and foremost thing which any ordinary person does is nothing.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Firsts, Ordinary, Doe

  "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality". Harry Potter fan fiction by Eliezer Yudkowsky, www.hpmor.com. 2010 - 2015.

  13 Copy quote

• Do not flinch from experiences that might destroy your beliefs. The thought you cannot think controls you more than thoughts you speak aloud. Submit yourself to ordeals and test yourself in fire. Relinquish the emotion which rests upon a mistaken belief, and seek to feel fully that emotion which fits the facts.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Thinking, Fire, Facts

  "Twelve Virtues Of Rationality" by Eliezer Yudkowsky, yudkowsky.net. 2006.

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• If you want to maximize your expected utility, you try to save the world and the future of intergalactic civilization instead of donating your money to the society for curing rare diseases and cute puppies.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Cute, Civilization, Trying

  "The Singularity: Humanity's Last Invention?". "All Things Considered" with Martin Kaste, www.npr.org. January 11, 2011.

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• Your strength as a rationalist is your ability to be more confused by fiction than by reality. If you are equally good at explaining any outcome, you have zero knowledge.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Zero, Confused, Reality

  "Your Strength as a Rationalist". lesswrong.com. August 11, 2007.

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• Trying and getting hurt can't possibly be worse for you than being... stuck.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Courage, Hurt, Effort

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• I ask the fundamental question of rationality: Why do you believe what you believe? What do you think you know and how do you think you know it?

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Believe, Thinking, Fundamentals

  "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality". Book by Eliezer Yudkowsky, 2010.

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• Crocker's Rules didn't give you the right to say anything offensive, but other people could say potentially offensive things to you, and it was your responsibility not to be offended. This was surprisingly hard to explain to people; many people would read the careful explanation and hear, "Crocker's Rules mean you can say offensive things to other people."

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Responsibility, Mean, People

  "Radical Honesty". lesswrong.com. September 10, 2007.

  21 Copy quote

• - Every time someone cries out in prayer and I can't answer, I feel guilty about not being God. - That doesn't sound good. - I understand that I have a problem, and I know what I need to do to solve it, all right? I'm working on it. Of course, Harry hadn't said what the solution was. The solution, obviously, was to hurry up and become God.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Prayer, Sound, Needs

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