Wherever I turn my head around in this world, I see lost causes everywhere. I see Goodhart’s law and Campbell’s law at loose everywhere. I see insane optimizers everywhere. Political parties that concentrate more on show, pomp and campaign funds than on actual issues. Corporates that seek money to the exclusion of actual creation of value. Governments that seek employment and GDP growth even when those are supported by artificial stimuli and not sustainable patterns of production and trade.
One might argue that none of these systems are actually as intelligent as a well educated human at any given moment in time. But that’s the point, isn’t it? You’re unable to stop sub-human optimizers, how are you going to curb a near human or a super human one?
For me, the scary idea is not so much of an idea as it is an extension of something that is already happening in this world.
Without wanting to weasel out of your request, I honestly believe that Eliezer’s Lost purposes post says the point I want to make very well, much better than I can hope to phrase it without putting in some hard work. The only new point I probably made is that these forces are already at loose and it is difficult to curb them.
However, I will make an effort this weekend and see what I can come up with.
Upvoted. Although I believe that one could also see our cultural and political systems as superhuman collective entities undergoing an evolutionary arms race featuring a anthropocentrically weighted utility maximizing selection pressure. There is some evidence for this too, to put it bluntly, we are better off than we have been 100 years ago?
I tend to think differently on this one.
Wherever I turn my head around in this world, I see lost causes everywhere. I see Goodhart’s law and Campbell’s law at loose everywhere. I see insane optimizers everywhere. Political parties that concentrate more on show, pomp and campaign funds than on actual issues. Corporates that seek money to the exclusion of actual creation of value. Governments that seek employment and GDP growth even when those are supported by artificial stimuli and not sustainable patterns of production and trade.
One might argue that none of these systems are actually as intelligent as a well educated human at any given moment in time. But that’s the point, isn’t it? You’re unable to stop sub-human optimizers, how are you going to curb a near human or a super human one?
For me, the scary idea is not so much of an idea as it is an extension of something that is already happening in this world.
Would you mind writing that up as an essay, for use as a LW post, or ideally, as a piece of SIAI literature?
Dear Michael,
Without wanting to weasel out of your request, I honestly believe that Eliezer’s Lost purposes post says the point I want to make very well, much better than I can hope to phrase it without putting in some hard work. The only new point I probably made is that these forces are already at loose and it is difficult to curb them.
However, I will make an effort this weekend and see what I can come up with.
Thanks. I appreciate the effort.
Upvoted. Although I believe that one could also see our cultural and political systems as superhuman collective entities undergoing an evolutionary arms race featuring a anthropocentrically weighted utility maximizing selection pressure. There is some evidence for this too, to put it bluntly, we are better off than we have been 100 years ago?
I bet you meant lost purposes.