Direct reply to the discussion post: I would hope so, but at this point none of the top links on any search engine I tried lead here for “AI box”. Yudkowsky.net is on the first page, and there are a few LW posts, but they are nothing like the clearly-explanatory links (Wikipedia and RationalWiki) that make up the first results. Obviously, those links can be followed to reach LW, but the connection is pretty weak.
The search results for “Roko’s Basilisk” are both better and worse. LessWrong is prominently mentioned in them, often right in the page title and/or URL, but none of them speak particularly well of the site (Wikipedia’s entry—which I hadn’t seen since back when it was just a redirect to EY—prominently mentions two items in LW’s history: its founding and the Basilisk. That’s probably the least unfavorable description of the Basilisk too, but that doesn’t make it good. None of the results actually link here directly.
ANECDOTE TIME: I’m a fairly new member of LW; I’ve been reading LW-related stuff for over a year now but only created my account here recently. I had never heard of Roko’s Basilisk, which indicates two things to me:
1) The subject is well-suppressed here, to such a degree that I didn’t even realize it was taboo. I had to learn that from RationalWiki.
2) I obtained my knowledge about LW pretty exclusively from stuff that (current) LW members had posted or linked to about the site (as opposed to, say, reading RationalWiki which is a site I was aware of but hold in low regard).
My view on the whole subject is, quite simply, that we as aspiring rationalists need to acknowledge the past error and explain the Basilisk right here, not on Reddit or XKCD’s forums or RW/WP edit wars or anything like that. Put it in our own wiki. Put lots of links out to the other comments on it. Explain, where necessary, why those other comments are wrong… but prominently explain where LW (and yes, EY in particular) were wrong. Refute the argument of FAI engaging in acausal blackmail. Steelman the terror and defeat it anyhow. Do this on our own turf, with input from the community, and link to it when somebody externally brings up the subject! So long as LW remains Basilisk-free, people will claim we are unwilling to address the issue.
Direct reply to the discussion post: I would hope so, but at this point none of the top links on any search engine I tried lead here for “AI box”. Yudkowsky.net is on the first page, and there are a few LW posts, but they are nothing like the clearly-explanatory links (Wikipedia and RationalWiki) that make up the first results. Obviously, those links can be followed to reach LW, but the connection is pretty weak.
The search results for “Roko’s Basilisk” are both better and worse. LessWrong is prominently mentioned in them, often right in the page title and/or URL, but none of them speak particularly well of the site (Wikipedia’s entry—which I hadn’t seen since back when it was just a redirect to EY—prominently mentions two items in LW’s history: its founding and the Basilisk. That’s probably the least unfavorable description of the Basilisk too, but that doesn’t make it good. None of the results actually link here directly.
ANECDOTE TIME: I’m a fairly new member of LW; I’ve been reading LW-related stuff for over a year now but only created my account here recently. I had never heard of Roko’s Basilisk, which indicates two things to me: 1) The subject is well-suppressed here, to such a degree that I didn’t even realize it was taboo. I had to learn that from RationalWiki. 2) I obtained my knowledge about LW pretty exclusively from stuff that (current) LW members had posted or linked to about the site (as opposed to, say, reading RationalWiki which is a site I was aware of but hold in low regard).
My view on the whole subject is, quite simply, that we as aspiring rationalists need to acknowledge the past error and explain the Basilisk right here, not on Reddit or XKCD’s forums or RW/WP edit wars or anything like that. Put it in our own wiki. Put lots of links out to the other comments on it. Explain, where necessary, why those other comments are wrong… but prominently explain where LW (and yes, EY in particular) were wrong. Refute the argument of FAI engaging in acausal blackmail. Steelman the terror and defeat it anyhow. Do this on our own turf, with input from the community, and link to it when somebody externally brings up the subject! So long as LW remains Basilisk-free, people will claim we are unwilling to address the issue.