Everyone even slightly famous gets arbitrary green ink. Choosing which green ink to ‘complain’ about on your blog, when it makes an idea look bad which you would find politically disadvantageous, is not a neutral act. I’m also frankly suspicious of what the green ink actually said, and whether it was, perhaps, another person who doesn’t like the “UFAI is possible” thesis saying that “Surely it would imply...” without anyone ever actually advocating it. Why would somebody who actually advocated that, contact Ben Goertzel when he is known as a disbeliever in the thesis?
No, I don’t particularly trust Ben Goertzel to play rationalist::nice with his politics. And describing him as a “former researcher at SIAI” is quite disingenuous of you, by the way; he never received any salary from us and is a long-time opponent of these ideas. At one point Tyler Emerson thought it would be a good idea to fund a project of his, but that’s it.
And describing him as a “former researcher at SIAI” is quite disingenuous of you, by the way; he never received any salary from us and is a long-time opponent of these ideas. At one point Tyler Emerson thought it would be a good idea to fund a project of his, but that’s it.
If that’s the case, it seems like giving him the title Director of Research could cause a lot of confusion. I certainly find it confusing. Maybe that was a different Ben Goertzel?
Reportedly, Ben Goertzel and OpenCog were intended to add credibility through association with an academic:
It has similarly been a general rule with the Singularity Institute that, whatever it is we’re supposed to do to be more credible, when we actually do it, nothing much changes. “Do you do any sort of code development? I’m not interested in supporting an organization that doesn’t develop code”—> OpenCog—> nothing changes. “Eliezer Yudkowsky lacks academic credentials”—> Professor Ben Goertzel installed as Director of Research—> nothing changes.
Everyone even slightly famous gets arbitrary green ink. Choosing which green ink to ‘complain’ about on your blog, when it makes an idea look bad which you would find politically disadvantageous, is not a neutral act. I’m also frankly suspicious of what the green ink actually said, and whether it was, perhaps, another person who doesn’t like the “UFAI is possible” thesis saying that “Surely it would imply...” without anyone ever actually advocating it. Why would somebody who actually advocated that, contact Ben Goertzel when he is known as a disbeliever in the thesis?
No, I don’t particularly trust Ben Goertzel to play rationalist::nice with his politics. And describing him as a “former researcher at SIAI” is quite disingenuous of you, by the way; he never received any salary from us and is a long-time opponent of these ideas. At one point Tyler Emerson thought it would be a good idea to fund a project of his, but that’s it.
If that’s the case, it seems like giving him the title Director of Research could cause a lot of confusion. I certainly find it confusing. Maybe that was a different Ben Goertzel?
Reportedly, Ben Goertzel and OpenCog were intended to add credibility through association with an academic:
Honestly, at this point I’m willing to just call that a mistake on Tyler Emerson’s part.