RationalWiki:What is going on in the clogosphere?/March 2016

March 2016
Time to leave the era of the binary gravy train and embrace fourth-dimensional computing. (Video courtesy of Retsupurae) Sam Harris goes transhumanist: he confirms in his podcast (51:02 on) that the book he's writing with "an AI expert who had not attended college" is a collaboration with Eliezer Yudkowsky, to be a dialogue-based book (a.k.a. two guys pontificating, transcribed) about a Muzz-lim AI that destroys the world the ethical implications of artificial intelligences. Harris buys the MIRI line. He's also taken on board the claims of Aubrey de Grey (18:05 on).

Rationalism is a form of oppression and has no inherent value!. Alex Jones says that Brussels was a false flag brought in by European governments. Andrew Wakefield's "movie" is going to be screened at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival, followed by a Q&A session (page now withdrawn). What the fuck. EDIT: It was Robert De Niro's fault. Another edit: Tribeca & De Niro do a 180:  De Niro won't show anti-vaccine movie at Tribeca Film Festival It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that the ephebotarians are at it again. Eliezer Yudkowsky, despairing of human rationality in the face of AI risk, has decided that superior Bayesian thinking means you can beat Wikipedia at the educational game. You know, you really should read the Sequences Arbital. One of the very finest articles so far is The Rocket Alignment Problem, apparently a metaphor explaining MIRI's research output. NaturalNews: "Ted Cruz is He's  The mainstream media is  He is truly the only one (along with Trump) to " / Ted Cruz: "Opposing GMOs is 'anti-science zealotry'." / NaturalNews: "..." Donald Trump is a true physics genius for overrunning centuries of established theoretical and empirical results. Moral panic alert: A Tampa mother discovers that the symbol on the plush toy she bought for her 2-year-old daughter is allegedly a come-hither signal aimed at pedophiles on the prowl. HuffPo's version includes three more alleged symbols. Most of the commenters on both threads aren't buying it. However it has been noted that the symbols are recorded in an FBI document on WikiLeaks as those pedophiles use to identify their "preferences". Trump's been successful in the Bible Belt because American Christianity is full of "dainty men with spiked hair and skinny jeans singing sissified songs about an effeminate Savior." Asshole reactionaries on Twitter have kicked off #TheTriggering, a whiny temper tantrum campaign to protect free speech from the "SJWs" by being slightly bigger assholes towards women and minorities they don't like than usual. (reported by We Hunted the Mammoth) How crank magnetism works: climate change denialist Anthony Watts is promoting Immanuel Velikovsky on Watts Up With That. To fight "scientific elitism". (HT HotWhopper) Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos crashes WH Press Briefing, asks about Twitter censorship. As an unpublished letter by Osama bin Laden is released, urging the US to fight climate change instead of Islam, wingnuts are quick to equate the late terrorist to Bernie Sanders.