Open Thread 332

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This is the weekly visible open thread. Post about anything you want, ask random questions, whatever. ACX has an unofficial subreddit, Discord, and bulletin board, and in-person meetups around the world. 95% of content is free, but for the remaining 5% you can subscribe here. Also:

1: Thanks to everyone who talked to me at the Less Online conference. Thanks especially to the person who gave me a working GPS-based version of the automated land acknowledger from Bay Area House Party, it’s one of the most interesting gifts I’ve ever received and I’m looking forward to bringing it to some other city to test its functionality:

2: Comment of the week: why does Britain let submarine commanders launch nukes on their own, when Russia and America have the opposite policy? Also related to the links post: someone on Facebook says that Cryonics Institute has not confirmed that Paris Hilton is signed up, and this might be a false story.

3: Lyman Stone has responded to my response to him. I think it just doubles down on the same points he made the first time, so I might not get around to writing a full response. I’ll just say that first, I think it could benefit from better understanding of the distinctions between virtue ethics, rule utilitarianism, two-level utilitarianism - Mill, Hare, or Parfit could be good sources here, or even just some of the blog posts I linked. Second, Stone seems confused that I’ve blocked him on Twitter. I want to stress that I never block people just because I disagree with them; the only reason I block people is because of a history of doxxing, which Stone has, and which angers me for personal reasons. I think in an ideal world this would merit a permaban from Twitter, but all I can do on my own is block him from reading my stuff.

4: Berkeley meetup this Wednesday at 6:30 at 2740 Telegraph. I’ll be there. I’ll probably post a reminder with slightly more information tomorrow or Tuesday.