4 definitions by 7154b22954f68d626c891921a6a5e0

Imagining something in vivid detail, mentally simulating the experience, like dreaming, but generally awake. Derived from "phantasia", which is another word for the capacity of mental visualization.

Usually in reference to visual experience, but can also apply to the visualization that goes on in the process of engineering design.
"Aphantasic?" "It means they can't phant. I mean, they can't imagine how it would feel to look at a thing until they actually look at it." "I don't think it's possible to know exactly what it would feel like until you actually experience it." "Well kind of, phanting has limits, nobody's perfect at it, but some people are pretty good at it."

"Yes, I'm sure the design will work. I've been phanting for days."
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Culture of origin: lesswrong-adjacent blogging communities

The epistemic status is a short disclaimer at the top of a post that explains how confident the author is in the contents of the post, how much reputation the author is willing to stake on it, what sorts of tests the thesis has passed.

It should give a reader a sense of how seriously they should take the post.
It had "Epistemic Status: Wild off-the-cuff speculation" so I didn't bother to read it. It seemed entertaining, just didn't have time.

He said "Epistemic Status: Would bet at 30:1 odds in favour of the thesis and I probably one of the top 100 theorists in the intersection of the relevant fields" but it still seemed completely insane to me. Heads better roll if/when it turns out to be wrong. Like, I mean it, he should lose all of his social capital. People should stop reading his blog and his eigenkarma should be reset (If he's somehow right though I will be very impressed)

"Epistemic Status: Fiction"
by 7154b22954f68d626c891921a6a5e0 January 13, 2019
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The dark arts of winning wars with friendship and lies, and expecting the same from one's opponents. The dark side of the arts of diplomacy.
Watch out. He might help you in the near-term, but he's a diplomancer, he already knows exactly when he's going to burn your friendship and stab you in the back.

Some people can't play Neptune's Pride more than once, because they don't have the emotional constitution for diplomancy. They just can't enjoy a game that requires them to doublecross their allies.
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An act that bodily commits a person to a terrible conflict, through a transformative or unforgivable act that makes it impossible for the one who "eats red flowers" to back down from the conflict. Examples of red flowers may include acts of violence, but could also include "Fighting Words", offensive speech that clearly and unambiguously expresses an intent to fight.

It's an idiom from the foundational indie game, Cave Story. Within Cave Story, Any mimiga (rabbit person) who ate a local variety of red flowers would turn irreversibly into a violent monster. There was some implication that the warriors of the mimiga took highly diluted infusions of red flowers for strength, but even they took great care not to go too far. A mimiga would only knowingly eat a red flower once they were ready to die fighting.
"There's no point in engaging with them. They've eaten the red flowers. (They've tweeted some really stupid and offensive things that they're not going to want to ever have to acknowledge they were wrong about, so they wont, so we can't reconcile)"

"No Averill, don't shoot a partridge in the lord's private hunting grounds. If he finds out he'll deploy his army and try to evict us."
"Let him. We peasants are ready to revolt, and we'd win. I'm going to do it, Barclay, sooner or later I'm going to eat the red flowers."
by 7154b22954f68d626c891921a6a5e0 September 17, 2022
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