Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
- 105
- 1
What is this place?
This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a
court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to
optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.
The weekly Culture War threads host the most
controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are
appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy;
if in doubt, post!
Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts.
You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.
Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
New post guidelines
If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it.
A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts
such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a
submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).
Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or
significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.
If in doubt, please post it!
Rules
- Courtesy
- Content
- Engagement
- When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
- Proactively provide evidence in proportion to how partisan and inflammatory your claim might be.
- Accept temporary bans as a time-out, and don't attempt to rejoin the conversation until it's lifted.
- Don't attempt to build consensus or enforce ideological conformity.
- Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
- The Wildcard Rule
- The Metarule

Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
The week in AI fun:
Some of the better suggestions:
Personally my favorite is Yuddites
If AI is going to rule us all and into darkness bind us, I do hope that it will be from OpenAI or China. There are at least hints of humor in their model.
This is probably a little too Culture War-y for Friday, but I am literally begging the people who are in support of AI to start actually trying to sell their AI future, especially if they want the public to get on board. I would caution that perhaps finding a new name to call the Anti-AI in order to demean them further is not a good strategy toward that aim. I'd suggest laying out an AI future that people would actually want (90%+ unemployment with the potential for Terminator live-action remake does not seem to be it), laying out the path that we will have to take to get there, and annunciating how we will avoid the threat of nuclear holocaust beyond "Just trust us bro".
The AI doomerist crowd is what happens when you roll all Int build with wisdom as a dump stat. Marina from the Marina and the diamonds fame has more of said dump stat than that community combined - "I'm not afraid of God, I am afraid of man". AGI should be the worst of your worry with AI. Worry about the authoritarians regimes ruling forever. Almost any (wannabe) dictator on this planet has enough territory and they are not really expansionist. But we are already here - even if anthropic stops AI development today - the stazis of the world would not. And the problem is of course not AI but the innate human tendency every regime to evolve into absolutism in the end. AI killing us all and then moving to rule the galaxy is the better option than forever oppression.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link