I don’t know how different people define “rationalism”. But I do think it’s important to be aware whether you believe that rationality is the best policy for an agent, or that, in addition, rational agents are the best thing for a society. The latter is probably not true as a universal rule for all types of agents.
Disbelief in the latter is of course why SIAI exists.
The latter may however be true for human rationalists with average personalities. Even if it was only true for average personalities AMONG those who became rationalists this community would make sense.
I don’t know how different people define “rationalism”. But I do think it’s important to be aware whether you believe that rationality is the best policy for an agent, or that, in addition, rational agents are the best thing for a society. The latter is probably not true as a universal rule for all types of agents.
I was with you right up to the last three paragraphs, and again feel like we might need to taboo “rational” and “rationalist”.
Maybe that should have been a separate post.
I don’t know how different people define “rationalism”. But I do think it’s important to be aware whether you believe that rationality is the best policy for an agent, or that, in addition, rational agents are the best thing for a society. The latter is probably not true as a universal rule for all types of agents.
Disbelief in the latter is of course why SIAI exists. The latter may however be true for human rationalists with average personalities. Even if it was only true for average personalities AMONG those who became rationalists this community would make sense.
How’d you manage the dual post? Should this be a bug report?
I clicked on “comment”; the browser (Firefox) hung for a few minutes trying to submit it; I clicked on it again.
Maybe that should have been a separate post.
I don’t know how different people define “rationalism”. But I do think it’s important to be aware whether you believe that rationality is the best policy for an agent, or that, in addition, rational agents are the best thing for a society. The latter is probably not true as a universal rule for all types of agents.