Eliezer Yudkowsky: That covers a lot of territory! But if I tried to zoom in at the most general level of difference, there’s very much an understanding among Very Serious People that if you require anything to get access to a job (like a credential) that is difficult to get or has finite supply, people can burn the whole surplus value of the job to them in order to get it, even if that thing is of lower value to the employer. In other words, they would recognize “occupational licensing” or college as a sickness and move to prevent it while it was still getting started. In general, demanding something from somebody other than their actual job skill is recognized as a potential civilizational problem.
The thing I’m trying to get at, is not so much “a test that is required in order to be able to get any job” (as the US high school diploma accidentally became), but rather, “a test which can identify the Very Serious People”.
I would expect that Dath Ilan doesn’t have a concept of Very Serious People. That seems to be a concept focused on status instead of getting things done.
Why would you expect it to have such a concept and what kind of decisions do you think would be made based on whether someone is part of Very Serious People?
Eliezer wrote:
The thing I’m trying to get at, is not so much “a test that is required in order to be able to get any job” (as the US high school diploma accidentally became), but rather, “a test which can identify the Very Serious People”.
I would expect that Dath Ilan doesn’t have a concept of Very Serious People. That seems to be a concept focused on status instead of getting things done.
Why would you expect it to have such a concept and what kind of decisions do you think would be made based on whether someone is part of Very Serious People?