From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Fri Jul 12 2002 - 02:08:57 MDT
Max More wrote:
>
> Curiously, several people who don't know me and a number who do, didn't
> seem to have this problem -- or not to the degree you described.
> However, I *do* tend to speak too fast when I can't see a large audience
> -- and here I was having to look into a blank camera, not able to see
> *anyone*. (The larger the audience, the better I do.) I was also very
> dry-mouthed, not due to nerves but to cold medication. If you noticed my
> words becoming more difficult towards the end of the first segment, that
> was because I was having to force them out. I was able to get some water
> during the break and that improved things considerably.
I do agree with Lee that you were speaking too fast (although not "much
too fast"; I still understood most of it except during the crosstalk).
I didn't notice your words becoming more difficult towards the end of
the first segment. What's memorable for the speaker is not always
memorable for the audience.
Actually, if we're allowed to do a postmortem of the talk - not that I'm
saying anyone could have done better on-the-fly - one thing that stuck
in my mind was in the beginning, when you were asked "Why do you believe
in cryonics?" and you replied "Well, I try not to 'believe in' anything"
or something along those lines. I thought about this afterward,
searching for a response that wouldn't trigger 'nihilism' cues; the best
I could come up with was: "Cryonics is not a matter of faith or
believing in something. It's a calculated risk."
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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