I am asking in advance if anyone has non-obvious consequences they want to point out or policy considerations they would like to raise. In other words, the form of this discussion is not ‘Do you like this?’ - you probably have a different cost function from people who are held responsible for how LW looks as a whole—but rather, ’Are there any predictable consequences we didn’t think of that you would like to point out
Eliezer, at this point I think it’s fair to ask: has anything anyone has said so far caused you to update? If not, why not?
I realize some of my replies to you in this thread have been rather harsh, so perhaps I should take this opportunity to clarify: I consider myself a big fan of yours. I think you’re a brilliant guy, and I agree with you on just about everything regarding FAI, x-risk, SIAI’s mission.… I think you’re probably mankind’s best bet if we want to successfully navigate the singularity. But at the same time, I also think you can demonstrate some remarkably poor judgement from time to time… hey, we’re all running on corrupted hardware after all. It’s the combination of these two facts that really bothers me.
I don’t know of any way to say this that isn’t going to come off sounding horribly condescending, so I’m just going to say it, and hope you evaluate it in the context of the fact that I’m a big fan of your work, and in the grand scheme of things, we’re on the same side.
I think what’s going on here is that your feelings have gotten hurt by various people misattributing various positions to you that you don’t actually hold. That’s totally understandable. But I think you’re confusing the extent to which your feelings have been hurt with the extent to which actual harm has been done to SIAI’s mission, and are overreacting as a result. I’m not a psychologist—this is just armchair speculation.… I’m just telling you how it looks from the outside.
Again, we’re all running on corrupted hardware, so it’s entirely natural for even the best amongst us to make these kinds of mistakes… I don’t expect you to be an emotionless Straw Vulcan (and indeed, I wouldn’t trust you if you were)… but your apparent unwillingness to update in response to other’s input when it comes to certain emotionally charged issues is very troubling to me.
So to answer your question “Are there any predictable consequences we didn’t think of that you would like to point out”… well I’ve pointed out many already, but the most concise, and most important predictable consequence of this policy which I believe you’re failing to take into account, is this: IT LOOKS HORRIBLE… like, really really bad. Way worse than the things it’s intended to combat.
Eliezer, at this point I think it’s fair to ask: has anything anyone has said so far caused you to update? If not, why not?
I realize some of my replies to you in this thread have been rather harsh, so perhaps I should take this opportunity to clarify: I consider myself a big fan of yours. I think you’re a brilliant guy, and I agree with you on just about everything regarding FAI, x-risk, SIAI’s mission.… I think you’re probably mankind’s best bet if we want to successfully navigate the singularity. But at the same time, I also think you can demonstrate some remarkably poor judgement from time to time… hey, we’re all running on corrupted hardware after all. It’s the combination of these two facts that really bothers me.
I don’t know of any way to say this that isn’t going to come off sounding horribly condescending, so I’m just going to say it, and hope you evaluate it in the context of the fact that I’m a big fan of your work, and in the grand scheme of things, we’re on the same side.
I think what’s going on here is that your feelings have gotten hurt by various people misattributing various positions to you that you don’t actually hold. That’s totally understandable. But I think you’re confusing the extent to which your feelings have been hurt with the extent to which actual harm has been done to SIAI’s mission, and are overreacting as a result. I’m not a psychologist—this is just armchair speculation.… I’m just telling you how it looks from the outside.
Again, we’re all running on corrupted hardware, so it’s entirely natural for even the best amongst us to make these kinds of mistakes… I don’t expect you to be an emotionless Straw Vulcan (and indeed, I wouldn’t trust you if you were)… but your apparent unwillingness to update in response to other’s input when it comes to certain emotionally charged issues is very troubling to me.
So to answer your question “Are there any predictable consequences we didn’t think of that you would like to point out”… well I’ve pointed out many already, but the most concise, and most important predictable consequence of this policy which I believe you’re failing to take into account, is this: IT LOOKS HORRIBLE… like, really really bad. Way worse than the things it’s intended to combat.