I interpret the post you linked as trying to solve the problem of pointing to things in the real world. Being able to point to things in the real world in a way which is ontologically robust is probably necessary for alignment. However “gliders”, “strawberries” and “diamonds” seem like incredibly complicated objects to point to in a way which is ontologically robust, and it is not clear that being able to point to these objects actually lead to any kind of solution.
What we are interested in is research into how to create a statistically unique enough piece of data and being able to reliably point to that. Pointing to pure information seems like it would be more physics independent and run into less issues with ontological breakdowns.
The QACI scheme allows us to construct more complicated formal objects, using counterfactuals on these pieces of data, out of which we are able to construct a long reflection process.
I interpret the post you linked as trying to solve the problem of pointing to things in the real world. Being able to point to things in the real world in a way which is ontologically robust is probably necessary for alignment. However “gliders”, “strawberries” and “diamonds” seem like incredibly complicated objects to point to in a way which is ontologically robust, and it is not clear that being able to point to these objects actually lead to any kind of solution.
What we are interested in is research into how to create a statistically unique enough piece of data and being able to reliably point to that. Pointing to pure information seems like it would be more physics independent and run into less issues with ontological breakdowns.
The QACI scheme allows us to construct more complicated formal objects, using counterfactuals on these pieces of data, out of which we are able to construct a long reflection process.