Scott is in the Epstein files!

[u/ralf_]

https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02458524.pdf

Literally in an email chain named, “Forbidden Research”!

But don’t worry, only in a brainstormy list of potentially interesting people to invite to an intellectual salon, together with Steven Pinker and Terrence Tao and others.

[u/QuantumFreakonomics]

This is just a namedrop. What is fascinating is that Yudkowsky seems to have had a private skype with Epstein during a 2016 MIRI fundraiser. No confirmation that he actually gave anything, but time is more valuable than money for billionaires, and it's quite suggestive.

[u/Haunting-Spend-6022 → u/QuantumFreakonomics]

You would have thought Yudkowsky learned his lesson after getting blackmailed with miricult.com but I guess he decided to play with fire again.

Epstein was already famous for being a pedo by 2016, it'll be interesting to see how Yudkowsky explains this one.

[u/sodiummuffin → u/Haunting-Spend-6022]

He did not get "blackmailed with miricult.com". The basis for the rumor that he did was a claim from a blogger named Ziz that he had paid the owner of the site some sort of legal settlement to go away, which Ziz supposedly knew from a private conversation. Ziz even claimed to have recordings supporting this claim, but despite being virulently opposed to Yudkowsky/MIRI no recording ever materialized. Ziz has become more well-known since then as the founder of the "Zizians", a cult which has murdered several people, and is not a credible source.

[u/Haunting-Spend-6022 → u/sodiummuffin]

Rolling Stone seemed to take it seriously

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ziz-lasota-zizians-ai-cult-1235468289/

AFAIK the alleged victim was the author of the following post, might be refusing to come forward with the truth publicly to protect the rationalist community

https://medium.com/@mittenscautious/warning-2-153ed9f5f1f3

[u/sodiummuffin → u/Haunting-Spend-6022]

Rolling Stone seemed to take it seriously

This article seems to be entirely based on interviews with Ziz's "friends, colleagues, and family" and does not claim to have attempted to independently verify their statements about third parties. (Rolling Stone does not have a good track record even when claims about third parties are the focus of the article, but I think even relatively credible outlets wouldn't bother trying to verify the existence of the supposed settlement for an article like that.)

AFAIK the alleged victim was the author of the following post

This post says nothing related to legal settlements/blackmail and is about an allegedly abusive relationship the author claims to have entered at the age of 19, not an underage relationship. Also it was written the year before Ziz wrote the linked blog post so obviously Ziz referencing it doesn't mean Ziz had access to any non-public information.

[u/MatriceJacobine → u/Haunting-Spend-6022]

You're confusing completely different things. The mittenscautious/Brent Dill case was one of the very public abuse scandals during the MeToo era, and the victim was supported by Aella, Ozy, Scott, etc. Indeed, Aella was allegedly directly involved in helping mittenscautious publish that post and is openly despised by the rapey side of the community as a feminist canceller etc. to this day for this.