HACKER Q&A
📣 cheesewhiz

What is a belief you hold that could result in social penalties


What is a belief you hold that could result in social penalties


  👤 JohnFen Accepted Answer ✓
All of them? I can't think of any belief that wouldn't be penalized in some social circle or another.

👤 superchroma
Nice try, FBI, you'll have to do better than that!

👤 baxtr
I rather keep to them to myself…

👤 mindcrime
Well, I agree with what @JohnFen said, in that pretty much all beliefs could be penalized in some scenario. But in terms of ones that I consider likely to be problematic "at scale", I guess I'd go with:

1. I don't really believe in any "gods" or deities. I basically fall into the group of "weak atheists" in that I don't positively assert that "god" does not exist, since I could never prove that. Or to put it another way: my Bayesian prior for the existence of god is very, very low. And as a Bayesian, I would always be willing to update my belief if presented with compelling evidence. But to date, no evidence I've seen has given me much reason to put any belief in the notion of a "god".

2. I believe that intelligent life on other planets almost certainly either has existed, does exist or will exist. The universe is too big for it to be otherwise, IMO.

3. OTOH, I find it somewhat unlikely that intelligent life from other planets has been visiting Earth and are the source of the "UFO phenomena". And basically for the same reason: the universe is too big, and travel times too long. On this one though, I will say that my belief has in fact been updated to some degree, as we have discovered more potentially habitable planets closer to Earth than were previously know.

4. I believe taxation is theft. That's not to say that some of the ends accomplished via the mechanism of taxation are not noble in and of themselves, but the end does not justify the means. And since taxation is ultimately predicated on a system of "you pay your taxes or men with guns come and imprison you, or forcibly seize your property" I consider it fundamentally theft.

5. I believe that all human beings deserve a certain measure of respect and consideration - and have the same fundamental rights - with no qualifiers based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, etc., etc.

6. I believe that AGI is possible, and is likely to be achieved.

7. Whether (6) is a desirable thing or not may be subject to debate. I'm not an "AI alarmist" or "AI doomerist", but I will allow that we don't know what all of the ultimate effects of creating AGI (or ASI) will be. There could be negative consequences. Hopefully not to the level of "The Matrix" or "Terminator", but it's hard to be sure.

8. I'm a fierce advocate for Second Amendment rights and gun ownership in general. Molon labe.

9. I believe that what you do with your own body is entirely up to you, and support the right to ingest, imbibe, and inhale any substance you choose, support the right to death (eg, assisted suicide), and support the right to modify your body as you see fit.

10. I mostly dislike the idea of abortion, but I don't think the State has any business being involved in the issue. As such, I'm pro-choice politically, even though I would hope that few expectant mothers would choose that route.

11. I'm opposed to the death penalty. I don't think the State should be in the business of killing people.

12. End the "war on drugs" which is just a cover for the "war on civil liberties".