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

  168 Copy quote

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

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Becoming, Ethical, Responsible

  46 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.

  46 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.

  36 Copy quote

• 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

  6 Copy quote

• 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.

  15 Copy quote

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

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  People, Danger, Artificial Intelligence

  18 Copy quote

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

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Thinking, Want, Organised

  3 Copy quote

• 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

  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.

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  3 Copy quote

• 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.

  3 Copy quote

• What people really believe doesn't feel like a BELIEF, it feels like the way the world IS.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Believe, People, World

  3 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.

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  9 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.

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  10 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.

  20 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.

  6 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.

  12 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

  4 Copy quote

• You will find ambiguity a great ally on your road to power. Give a sign of Slytherin on one day, and contradict it with a sign of Gryffindor the next; and the Slytherins will be enabled to believe what they wish, while the Gryffindors argue themselves into supporting you as well. So long as there is uncertainty, people can believe whatever seems to be to their own advantage. And so long as you appear strong, so long as you appear to be winning, their instincts will tell them that their advantage lies with you. Walk always in the shadow, and light and darkness both will follow.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Strong, Lying, Believe

  17 Copy quote

• 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.

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  20 Copy quote

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

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Courage, Hurt, Effort

  15 Copy quote

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