As a long-time LW mostly-lurker, I can confirm I’ve always had the impression MIRI’s proof-based stuff was supposed to be a spherical-cow model of agency that would lead to understanding of the messy real thing.
What I think John might be getting at is that (my outsider’s impression of) MIRI has been more focused on “how would I build an agent” as a lens for understanding agency in general—e.g. answering questions about the agency of e-coli is not the type of work I think of. Which maybe maps to ‘prescriptive’ vs. ‘descriptive’?
As a long-time LW mostly-lurker, I can confirm I’ve always had the impression MIRI’s proof-based stuff was supposed to be a spherical-cow model of agency that would lead to understanding of the messy real thing.
What I think John might be getting at is that (my outsider’s impression of) MIRI has been more focused on “how would I build an agent” as a lens for understanding agency in general—e.g. answering questions about the agency of e-coli is not the type of work I think of. Which maybe maps to ‘prescriptive’ vs. ‘descriptive’?