Thank you for pointing this out, as it is very important.
The morality / ethics of the human beings matters a lot. But it seems to matter more than just a lot. If we get even a little thing wrong here, …
But we’re getting more than just a little wrong here, imo. Afaict most modern humans are terribly confused about morality / ethics. As you say “what is even good”
I’ve spoken with serious mathematicians who believe they might have a promising direction to the AI alignment problem. But they’re also confused about what’s good. That is not their realm of expertise. And math is not constrained by ethics; you can express a lot of things in math, wholesome and unwholesome. And the same is so with the social dynamics, as you point out.
This is why MAPLE exists, to help answer the question of what is good, and help people describe that in math.
But in order to answer the question for REAL, we can’t merely develop better social models. Because again, your point applies to THAT as well. Developing better social models does not guarantee ‘better for humanity/the planet’. That is itself a technology, and it can be used either way.
We start by answering “what is good” directly and “how to act in accord with what is good” directly. We find the true ‘constraints’ on our behaviors, physical and mental. The entanglement between reality/truth and ethics/goodness is a real thing, but ‘intelligence’ on its own has never realized it.
most modern humans are terribly confused about morality
The other option is being slightly less terribly confused, I presume.
This is why MAPLE exists, to help answer the question of what is good
Do you consider yourselves having significant comparative advantage in this area relative to all other moral philosophers throughout the millenia whose efforts weren’t enough to lift humanity from the aforementioned dismal state?
We have a significant comparative advantage to pretty much all of Western philosophy. I know this is a ‘bold claim’. If you’re further curious you can come visit the Monastic Academy in Vermont, since it seems best ‘shown’ rather than ‘told’. But we also plan on releasing online content in the near future to communicate our worldview.
We do see that all the previous efforts have perhaps never quite consistently and reliably succeeded, in both hemispheres. (Because, hell, we’re here now.) But it is not fair to say they have never succeeded to any degree. There have been a number of significant successes in both hemispheres. We believe we’re in a specific moment in history where there’s more leverage than usual, and so there’s opportunity. We understand that chances are slim and dim.
We have been losing the thread to ‘what is good’ over the millenia. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel on this; the answers have been around. The question now is whether the answers can be taught to technology, or whether technology can somehow be yoked to the good / ethical, in a way that scales sufficiently.
We have a significant comparative advantage to pretty much all of Western philosophy.
I do agree that there are some valuable Eastern insights that haven’t yet penetrated the Western mainstream, so work in this direction is worth a try.
We believe we’re in a specific moment in history where there’s more leverage than usual, and so there’s opportunity. We understand that chances are slim and dim.
Also reasonable.
We have been losing the thread to ‘what is good’ over the millenia. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel on this; the answers have been around.
Here I disagree. I think that much of “what is good” is contingent on our material circumstances, which are changing ever faster these days, so it’s no surprise that old answers no longer work as well as they did in their time. Unfortunately, nobody has discovered a reliable way to timely update them yet, and very few seem to even acknowledge this problem.
The task is much harder now, due to changing material circumstances as you say. The modern culture has in some sense vaccinated itself against certain forms of wisdom and insight.
We acknowledge this problem and are still making an effort to address them, using modern technology. I cannot claim we’re ‘anywhere close’ to resolving this? We’re just firmly GOING to try, and we believe we in particular have a comparative advantage, due to a very solid community of spiritual practitioners. We have AT LEAST managed to get a group of modern millienials + Gen-Zers (with all the foibles of this group, with their mental hang-ups and all—I am one of them)… and successfully put them through a training system that ‘unschools’ their basic assumptions and provides them the tools to personally investigate and answer questions like ‘what is good’ or ‘how do i live’ or ‘what is going on here’.
There’s more to say, but I appreciate your engagement. This is helpful to hear.
Thank you for pointing this out, as it is very important.
The morality / ethics of the human beings matters a lot. But it seems to matter more than just a lot. If we get even a little thing wrong here, …
But we’re getting more than just a little wrong here, imo. Afaict most modern humans are terribly confused about morality / ethics. As you say “what is even good”
I’ve spoken with serious mathematicians who believe they might have a promising direction to the AI alignment problem. But they’re also confused about what’s good. That is not their realm of expertise. And math is not constrained by ethics; you can express a lot of things in math, wholesome and unwholesome. And the same is so with the social dynamics, as you point out.
This is why MAPLE exists, to help answer the question of what is good, and help people describe that in math.
But in order to answer the question for REAL, we can’t merely develop better social models. Because again, your point applies to THAT as well. Developing better social models does not guarantee ‘better for humanity/the planet’. That is itself a technology, and it can be used either way.
We start by answering “what is good” directly and “how to act in accord with what is good” directly. We find the true ‘constraints’ on our behaviors, physical and mental. The entanglement between reality/truth and ethics/goodness is a real thing, but ‘intelligence’ on its own has never realized it.
The other option is being slightly less terribly confused, I presume.
Do you consider yourselves having significant comparative advantage in this area relative to all other moral philosophers throughout the millenia whose efforts weren’t enough to lift humanity from the aforementioned dismal state?
We have a significant comparative advantage to pretty much all of Western philosophy. I know this is a ‘bold claim’. If you’re further curious you can come visit the Monastic Academy in Vermont, since it seems best ‘shown’ rather than ‘told’. But we also plan on releasing online content in the near future to communicate our worldview.
We do see that all the previous efforts have perhaps never quite consistently and reliably succeeded, in both hemispheres. (Because, hell, we’re here now.) But it is not fair to say they have never succeeded to any degree. There have been a number of significant successes in both hemispheres. We believe we’re in a specific moment in history where there’s more leverage than usual, and so there’s opportunity. We understand that chances are slim and dim.
We have been losing the thread to ‘what is good’ over the millenia. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel on this; the answers have been around. The question now is whether the answers can be taught to technology, or whether technology can somehow be yoked to the good / ethical, in a way that scales sufficiently.
I do agree that there are some valuable Eastern insights that haven’t yet penetrated the Western mainstream, so work in this direction is worth a try.
Also reasonable.
Here I disagree. I think that much of “what is good” is contingent on our material circumstances, which are changing ever faster these days, so it’s no surprise that old answers no longer work as well as they did in their time. Unfortunately, nobody has discovered a reliable way to timely update them yet, and very few seem to even acknowledge this problem.
Hm, you know I do buy that also.
The task is much harder now, due to changing material circumstances as you say. The modern culture has in some sense vaccinated itself against certain forms of wisdom and insight.
We acknowledge this problem and are still making an effort to address them, using modern technology. I cannot claim we’re ‘anywhere close’ to resolving this? We’re just firmly GOING to try, and we believe we in particular have a comparative advantage, due to a very solid community of spiritual practitioners. We have AT LEAST managed to get a group of modern millienials + Gen-Zers (with all the foibles of this group, with their mental hang-ups and all—I am one of them)… and successfully put them through a training system that ‘unschools’ their basic assumptions and provides them the tools to personally investigate and answer questions like ‘what is good’ or ‘how do i live’ or ‘what is going on here’.
There’s more to say, but I appreciate your engagement. This is helpful to hear.