As one of your supporters, I have been sometimes concerned that you are doing blog posts instead of working out the Friendly AI theory. Much more concerned than I show. I do try to hold it down to an occasional straight question, and hold myself back from telling you what to do. The hypothesis that I know better than you is at least −50dB.
This post is yet another glimpse into the Grand Strategy behind the strategy, and helps me dispel the fear from my less-than-rational mind.
I find it unsettling that ” … after years of bogging down I threw up my hands and explicitly recursed on the job of creating rationalists.”
You learned that, “The human brain can’t grasp large stakes and people are not anything remotely like expected utility maximizers, and we are generally altruistic akrasics.” Evolution didn’t deliver rationality any more than it delivered arithmetic. They have to be taught and executed as procedures. They aren’t natural. And I wonder if they can be impressed into System 1 through practice, to become semi-automatic. Right now, my rational side isn’t being successful at getting me to put in 8-hour work days to save humanity.
You learned that, “Dollars come out of different mental accounts, cost different amounts of willpower (the true limiting resource) under different circumstances … ” That makes some of MY screwy behavior start to make sense! It’s much more explanatory than, “I’m cheap!” or lazy, or insensitive, or rebellious, or contrary. That looks to me like a major, practical breakthrough. I will take that to my coach and my therapist, we will use it if we can.
I don’t think my psychologist ever said it. I doubt it is taught in undergraduate Psychology classes. Am I just out of touch ? Has this principle been put into school curricula? That you had to learn it the hard way, that it isn’t just common knowledge about people, ” … paints a disturbing picture.”
You’ve done it again. In a little over one thousand words, you have given me a conceptual tool that makes the world (and myself) more intelligible and perhaps a little more manageable. Perhaps even a LOT more manageable. We shall see, in real practice.
I would appreciate any links to information on the mental accounts and amounts of willpower.
Thanks, Eliezer!
As one of your supporters, I have been sometimes concerned that you are doing blog posts instead of working out the Friendly AI theory. Much more concerned than I show. I do try to hold it down to an occasional straight question, and hold myself back from telling you what to do. The hypothesis that I know better than you is at least −50dB.
This post is yet another glimpse into the Grand Strategy behind the strategy, and helps me dispel the fear from my less-than-rational mind.
I find it unsettling that ” … after years of bogging down I threw up my hands and explicitly recursed on the job of creating rationalists.”
You learned that, “The human brain can’t grasp large stakes and people are not anything remotely like expected utility maximizers, and we are generally altruistic akrasics.” Evolution didn’t deliver rationality any more than it delivered arithmetic. They have to be taught and executed as procedures. They aren’t natural. And I wonder if they can be impressed into System 1 through practice, to become semi-automatic. Right now, my rational side isn’t being successful at getting me to put in 8-hour work days to save humanity.
You learned that, “Dollars come out of different mental accounts, cost different amounts of willpower (the true limiting resource) under different circumstances … ” That makes some of MY screwy behavior start to make sense! It’s much more explanatory than, “I’m cheap!” or lazy, or insensitive, or rebellious, or contrary. That looks to me like a major, practical breakthrough. I will take that to my coach and my therapist, we will use it if we can.
I don’t think my psychologist ever said it. I doubt it is taught in undergraduate Psychology classes. Am I just out of touch ? Has this principle been put into school curricula? That you had to learn it the hard way, that it isn’t just common knowledge about people, ” … paints a disturbing picture.”
You’ve done it again. In a little over one thousand words, you have given me a conceptual tool that makes the world (and myself) more intelligible and perhaps a little more manageable. Perhaps even a LOT more manageable. We shall see, in real practice.
I would appreciate any links to information on the mental accounts and amounts of willpower.
Thank you, Eliezer.
--RickJS