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“Review: Planecrash” by L Rudolf L

Dec 28, 2024

Dive into a bizarre blend of fantasy and logic where math lectures sneak into a whimsical narrative. Discover characters navigating the chaotic realm of Dath-Elon, grappling with competence and decision theory. Explore philosophical musings on rationality that question conventional thinking and governance challenges. The intriguing dynamic between superintelligent beings and human emotions unfolds, leading to quirky tangents and deep reflections. It’s a wild journey that fuses intellectual rigor with storytelling.

39:20

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Quick takeaways

The podcast discusses the unconventional narrative structure of Planecrash, which blends fiction with educational mathematical lectures and personal critiques.

It highlights the portrayal of exceptionally competent characters like Keltham, who embody rational principles and challenge traditional character tropes in fantasy writing.

Deep dives

Unique Narrative Structure

The work employs a distinctive narrative format, resembling a series of forum posts, which adds an unconventional flair to its storytelling. This structure is combined with extensive mathematical lectures and tangents that, while largely irrelevant to the plot, showcase the author's penchant for deep dives into specific topics like frequentist statistics. This blending of fiction with lecture-style exposition not only delivers educational content but also serves as a vehicle for the author’s personal opinions and critiques, particularly towards figures in the AI and rationalist communities. This self-indulgent storytelling approach allows the narrative to stray into complex philosophical discussions, which Yudkowsky uses as a means of commentary and satire within the science fiction genre.

Intro

6min

Unraveling Competence in a Chaotic Realm

2min

Exploring Rationality and Competence in 'Planecrash'

13min

Navigating Decision Theory and Governance in Dath-Elon

12min

Exploring the Philosophical Landscape of a Modern Thinker

6min

Take a stereotypical fantasy novel, a textbook on mathematical logic, and Fifty Shades of Grey. Mix them all together and add extra weirdness for spice. The result might look a lot like Planecrash (AKA: Project Lawful), a work of fiction co-written by "Iarwain" (a pen-name of Eliezer Yudkowsky) and "lintamande".

(image from Planecrash)

Yudkowsky is not afraid to be verbose and self-indulgent in his writing. He previously wrote a Harry Potter fanfic that includes what's essentially an extended Ender's Game fanfic in the middle of it, because why not. In Planecrash, it starts with the very format: it's written as a series of forum posts (though there are ways to get an ebook). It continues with maths lectures embedded into the main arc, totally plot-irrelevant tangents that are just Yudkowsky ranting about frequentist statistics, and one instance of Yudkowsky hijacking the plot for a few pages to soapbox about [...]

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Outline:

(02:05) The setup

(04:03) The characters

(05:49) The competence

(09:58) The philosophy

(12:07) Validity, Probability, Utility

(15:20) Coordination

(18:00) Decision theory

(23:12) The political philosophy of dath ilan

(34:34) A system of the world

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First published:
December 27th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zRHGQ9f6deKbxJSji/review-planecrash

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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