The questions were about which properties the Singularity Institute would need to possess in order to successfully recruit young mathletes. The two most common answers were “previous technical results” and “one or two cool people already on the team.” (But, for example, most people didn’t care about peer review.) It seems that mathletes wanted to be able to see that these problems were tractable not just to humans but also to the Singularity Institute in particular. That sounds reasonable, of course, but self-reported motivations are often wrong, so we’re in the process of gathering additional forms of data, too.
I remember being tempted, but ultimately it felt nosy. I wouldn’t request that SIAI make all its strategic thinking public, and there’s nothing special about this particular bit of it, from my perspective.
What were the discussions about? And what conclusions did you reach?
(How come nobody else asked these questions? Am I the only one who is really curious about SIAI’s strategic thinking?)
The questions were about which properties the Singularity Institute would need to possess in order to successfully recruit young mathletes. The two most common answers were “previous technical results” and “one or two cool people already on the team.” (But, for example, most people didn’t care about peer review.) It seems that mathletes wanted to be able to see that these problems were tractable not just to humans but also to the Singularity Institute in particular. That sounds reasonable, of course, but self-reported motivations are often wrong, so we’re in the process of gathering additional forms of data, too.
I remember being tempted, but ultimately it felt nosy. I wouldn’t request that SIAI make all its strategic thinking public, and there’s nothing special about this particular bit of it, from my perspective.
Why not? Edit: See previous discussion of this topic here.
Thanks for that link; I wound up reading the whole comment thread, and it changed my mind.
So, people of SIAI: What were the discussions about? What conclusions did you reach? Or are you not finished yet? If not, how’s it going?