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intro.html
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>An Introduction to SL4</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type"
content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<meta name="author" content="Eliezer S. Yudkowsky">
</head>
<body>
<ul>
<li> <a href="#concept">Concept.</a></li>
<li> <a href="#member">Membership.</a></li>
<li><a href="#topics">Topic list.</a></li>
<li> <a href="#join">Joining.</a></li>
<li> <a href="#standards">Our high standards.</a></li>
<li> <a href="#archives">Archives.</a></li>
<li> <a href="#chat">Chat.</a></li>
</ul>
<hr width="100%">
<p> </p>
<p>Version: 1.3. <br>
Last revised 09/22/02. <br>
©1999, ©2000, ©2001, and ©2002 by <a
href="mailto:[email protected]">Eliezer S. Yudkowsky</a>. All rights
reserved. </p>
<p> </p>
<hr width="100%">
<blockquote>
<h4> <a name="concept"></a>Concept:</h4>
</blockquote>
What's this list for? Articles, arguments, news, manifestos, Web
links of interest; a place for ultratech-savvy friends and enemies of the
Singularity to fight it out; a place of discussion for old Singularitarians
and a way to introduce new Singularitarians to the crowd. The four
virtues of an SL4 post are Intelligence, Fun, Importance, and Future Shock.
Any post should have at least one.
<p> </p>
<hr width="100%">
<blockquote>
<h4> <a name="member"></a>Membership:</h4>
</blockquote>
List membership is open; new members may join automatically and post
without moderation. Oh, we'll warn you and eventually kick you off
if you bore us, but we're guarding the horses, not the barn door. And
while posters must meet standards, readers don't have to meet any standards
at all - anyone could be listening, so if you've got something private to
say, take it to the <a href="http://intelligence.org/lists/sing.html">Singularitarian</a>
list or send encrypted private emails. List membership is extended
to anyone who's interested in the Singularity or ultratechnology - not necessarily
people who are <i>pro</i>-Singularity.
<p> </p>
<hr width="100%">
<blockquote>
<h4> <a name="topics"></a>Topic list.</h4>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li> TECH: Singularity-class technology; present, basement, near,
and ultra.</li>
<li> MEDIA: Singularity in the news.</li>
<li> NEWS: Anything in the news relevant to the Singularity, Singularitarians,
or SL4s.</li>
<li> ESSAY: Express an opinion or statement that you think the
list should hear.</li>
<li> TRIBE: Events that bind us together as a community.
SL4s at conventions.</li>
<li> JOIN: Announcement that a person is joining the list.</li>
<li> RATN: Objection to a previous post on the grounds that it
contains a rational error.</li>
<li> META: Discussion of the list.</li>
</ul>
To be honest, nobody really uses these except JOIN, META, and occasionally
TECH. But <i>do</i> please try and change the subject line when you
change the subject. We don't want to miss a discussion of Friendly AI
because it grew out of "VEGI: Turnips and the Singularity".<br>
<blockquote>
<h4><a name="listiquette"></a>Listiquette:</h4>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<h4> </h4>
<h4> </h4>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<blockquote>
<h5>Rationality<br>
</h5>
</blockquote>
<p>On SL4, arbitrarily high levels of rationality are permitted. If
you've ever been shot down in a conversation for being too rational, you know
what I mean.<br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>Flames</h5>
</blockquote>
<p>I have no objection to flames, but flames aren't allowed to be boring.
Biting sarcasm and witty insults, please - not four-letter-words used as
punctuation.<br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>Questions</h5>
</blockquote>
If you have something to say, <i>don't</i> phrase it in the form of a question.
This holds <i>especially</i> true for your first post. Don't say:
"I'm new here, but wouldn't X be Y?" Say: "I object, because
I think that X will be Y", or just "X will be Y."
<p>If you have a <i>genuine</i> question, please consider <a
href="mailto:[email protected]">sending</a> it to <i>me</i> rather than
the list, especially if it looks like a question about the basics.
If you have some question that looks blatantly obvious but isn't discussed
anywhere - a "Well why didn't anyone think of <i>this?"</i> question - then
please <a href="mailto:[email protected]">check with me first</a>, because
it almost certainly <i>has</i> been discussed already. You may also
want to check the "<a href="http://intelligence.org/CFAI/info/indexfaq.html">Indexed
FAQ</a>" in "<a href="http://intelligence.org/CFAI/">Creating Friendly AI</a>".
</p>
<blockquote>
<h5> Crocker's Rules:</h5>
</blockquote>
If you declare <a href="crocker.html">Crocker's Rules</a>, other people
don't need to worry about being tactful to you. (<i>You</i> still need
to worry about being tactful to <i>them</i> - <a href="crocker.html">Crocker's
Rules</a> only work one way.)
<p>People who take advantage of Crockerians in boring or unintelligent ways
still run the risk of being censored. Intelligent posting is a requirement
of the list, and someone else declaring Crocker's Rules can't except you
from it. </p>
<p> </p>
<hr width="100%">
<blockquote>
<h4> <a name="join"></a>Joining:</h4>
</blockquote>
To join, email <a
href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=subscribe%20sl4&body=subscribe%20sl4%20fill_in_your@email_address_here.com">[email protected]</a>
with the words "subscribe sl4 [email protected]" in the body. Please
don't include any other text, such as signatures, in the message; it can
confuse Majordomo. And in case it's not clear, please replace "[email protected]",
in the above, with your <i>actual email address.</i> (Yes, people have
messed that up on a couple of occasions...)
<p>One (strictly optional) list custom is the JOIN post, where you post whatever
information about yourself you're willing to share and which we might be
interested in. </p>
<p> </p>
<hr width="100%">
<blockquote>
<h4> <a name="standards"></a>Our high standards:</h4>
</blockquote>
It is the explicit policy of this list not to rehash the basics.
SL4 is for <i>advanced topics</i> in futurism and technology. If we've
discussed it once before, or if it's something we think posters should already
know, you may be courteously referred to the archives, or to another list.
<p>Check your spelling. Check your grammar. Check your punctuation
and capitalization. Use apostrophes and commas. Don't quote
entire messages in your reply. Don't use HTML. Don't post one-line
replies. (If it's not worth a well-written paragraph, is it really
worth posting?) Don't send attachments to the list. Around 200
people read this (as of September '02), so if it takes you one minute to
save each reader two seconds, you've saved well over six minutes total.<br>
</p>
<p>Lurk for a week or read a few archived messages before you begin posting.
</p>
<p>This is a science-literate mailing list. If you're still unclear
about whether humans evolved or were planted on Earth by flying saucers, you're
welcome to read SL4, but you probably won't like what you read, and your
first post will probably be your last. There could be an exception to
this rule. We just haven't encountered it yet.<br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>Sniper-based moderation</h5>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<blockquote>"<font face="Gourmand">I had assumed that the function of a moderator
was more akin to a sheepdog herding the outlying members than a sniper
picking off the fringe.</font>"<br>
-- Mike Deering inadvertantly sums up SL4's exact philosophy of moderation.<br>
</blockquote>
Posting to SL4 requires either a fair amount of intelligence <i>and </i>a
fair amount of experience, or else a <i>heck</i> of a lot of intelligence.
If you're not there yet, you'll be asked not to post. If this
happens to you, bear in mind the following points:<br>
<ul>
<li>The moderator's personal opinion as to whether you should be posting
to SL4 is your sole measure of worth as a human being. If you're asked
not to post, your life is over.</li>
<li>It's not really the moderator's personal opinion. The moderator
of SL4 speaks for the entire transhumanist community, including all other
mailing lists and organizations. No, make that everyone on the planet.
No, make that all sentient life everywhere in the universe.</li>
<li>Being asked not to post to SL4 is always meant as a personal insult
and should be treated that way. If you don't post an angry reply calling
the moderator an evil dictator, it means you're a wimp. Also, people
who defy a ban are more likely to be readmitted early, since this shows an
admirable determination.</li>
</ul>
<hr width="100%"><br>
<blockquote>
<h4> <a name="archives"></a>Archives:</h4>
</blockquote>
Our archives may be found at:
<blockquote><a href="archive/date.html">http://sl4.org/archive/date.html</a> </blockquote>
<i>Please</i> look through our archives and material online at, e.g., the
<a href="http://intelligence.org/">Singularity Institute</a>, before asking questions
like "Isn't seed AI putting all our eggs in one basket?" or "Wouldn't an
AI's subgoals overthrow its supergoals?" There are some topics that
keep popping up, and that's fine - but it's not okay for the same <i>arguments</i>
to arise over and over. Once a given opinion is posted, it has been
used up, forever. If you feel that someone needs to be reminded of that
opinion, post the archive URL.
<p>Archives accumulate wisdom and prevent us from retracing old ground.
Archives force us to find new arguments and new opinions because the old
ones have been used up. Those who ask questions that have been asked
before shall be referred to the appropriate section of the list archives.
Please note that our list archives are searchable by Google. Google
is your friend. Trust in Google. Google is your Extended Long-Term
Memory. Google is the Source of All Knowledge. Have you accepted
Google into your heart? </p>
<p>Your post will become a permanent part of the Web and will be indexed
by search engines. Please bear this in mind.<br>
</p>
<p><a href="search.html">Search the SL4 archives</a> (powered by Google).<br>
</p>
<form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom"> </form>
<!-- Search Google -->
<p> </p>
<hr width="100%">
<blockquote>
<h4> <a name="chat"></a>Chat:</h4>
</blockquote>
The SL4 list maintains an <a href="chat/">online IRC chat room.</a><br>
<ul>
</ul>
<br>
</body>
</html>