this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

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Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid - welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

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[–] ivyastrix@awful.systems 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

there was a public post/callout posted about aella some time ago that said she had some part in hurting MAPLE's credibility / position in the community, it still is perplexing the most rational and enlightened humans in the world don't see their argument is basically it's cool when we do it

[–] CinnasVerses@awful.systems 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, it sounds like Aella has called out some abusers but not acknowledged that abuse and manipulation are central to the LessWrong / EA project. Soryu sounds like a more disciplined, less horny version of Yudkowsky (he got a degree and spent years at a Buddhist temple, but still meditates and reads pop science books to understand Scary AI).

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 3 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

a more disciplined, less horny version of Yudkowsky

error, error, does not compute

[–] CinnasVerses@awful.systems 4 points 9 hours ago

Correction: a woman who said she was raped by a MAPLE / OAK executive says that:

since this letter was published it has been reported that, Soryu Forall, the Monastic Academy’s main teacher and “guru” has begun to openly engage in sexual and romantic relationships with his students and former students.

That sounds a lot like Yud in the 2010s.

[–] CinnasVerses@awful.systems 5 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Imagine a Victorian curate beating the village schoolboys, driving his charwoman mad, and pottering about the local antiquarian society with essays about faeries or the customs of India which he has never visited.

Forall is not, by any means, a coder who understands AI at the zeros-and-ones level; he does not have a detailed familiarity with large language models or algorithmic design. I asked him whether he had used some of the popular new AI gadgets, such as ChatGPT and Midjourney. He had tried one chatbot. ... When I asked whom he looks to or reads in order to understand AI, he at first, deadpan, answered, “the Buddha.” He then clarified that he also likes the work of the best-selling historian Yuval Noah Harari and a number of prominent ethical-tech folks, among them Zak Stein and Tristan Harris. And he is spending his life ruminating on AI’s risks, which he sees as far from banal.

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 5 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Forall ...

Never seen a gullibility filter in the form of eyebrows before:

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 2 points 9 hours ago

You may be on to something with the eyebrow heuristic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_A._Aquino

Michael Aquino, natsec goon, unfun satanism guy, and eyebrow enthusiast.