Even if it has some merits, I find the “death with dignity” thing an unhelpful, mathematically flawed, and potentially emotionally damaging way to relate to the problem. Even if MIRI has not given up, I wouldn’t be surprised if the general attitude of despair has substantially harmed the quality of MIRI research. Since I started as a contractor for MIRI in September, I’ve deliberately tried to avoid absorbing this emotional frame, and rather tried to focus on doing my job, which should be about computer science research. We’ll see if this causes me problems.
Even if it has some merits, I find the “death with dignity” thing an unhelpful, mathematically flawed, and potentially emotionally damaging way to relate to the problem. Even if MIRI has not given up, I wouldn’t be surprised if the general attitude of despair has substantially harmed the quality of MIRI research. Since I started as a contractor for MIRI in September, I’ve deliberately tried to avoid absorbing this emotional frame, and rather tried to focus on doing my job, which should be about computer science research. We’ll see if this causes me problems.