Anyone else worried about Peter Thiel’s support for Donald Trump discrediting Thiel in a lot of people’s eyes, and MIRI and AI safety/risk research in general by association?
I think it’s more likely to go the other way. There are FAR more people who pay attention to Trump and normal republican politics than are currently paying attention to Thiel and AI risk. A small fraction of these being interested in Thiel and looking into AI risk is probably going to outweigh any losses.
I am, and not just MIRI/AI safety, also for other topics like anti-deathism. Just today I read in a major French newspaper an article explaining how Peter Thiel is the only one from the silicon valley to support the “populist demagogue Trump” and in the same article that he also has this weird idea that death might ultimately be a curable disease...
I know that reverse stupidity isn’t intelligence, and about the halo effect, and that Peter Thiel having disgusting (to me, and to most French citizen) political tastes have no bearing on him being right or wrong about death, but many people will end up associating antideathism with being a Trump-supporting lunatic :/
So in which way are you different from someone who, say, thinks that Peter Thiel has disgusting (to him and a lot of other people) tastes in sex and so will end up associating antideathism with being a moral degenerate?
Well, I would consider it worrying if a major public advocate of antideathism were also publically advocating a sexuality that is considered disgusting by most people—like say pedophilia or zoophilia.
It is an unfortunate state of the world, because sexual (or political) preference shouldn’t have any significant impact on how you evaluate their position on non-related topics, but that’s how the world works.
Consider someone who never really thought about antideathism, open the newspaper the morning, reads about that person who publically advocate disgusting political/sexual/whatever opinions, and then learn in that article that he also “considers death to be a curable disease”. What will happen ? The person will bundle “death is a curable disease” has the kind of opinions disgusting persons have, and reject it. That’s why I’m worried about—it’s bad in term of PR when the spokeperson of something unusual you support also happen to be considered “disgusting” by many.
The same happens, for example, when Dawkins takes positions that are disgusting for many people about what he calls “mild pedophilia”—unrelated to whatever Dawkins is right or wrong about it, it does reflect badly on atheism, that a major public advocate of atheism also happens to be a public advocate of something considered “disgusting” by many. Except that it’s even worse in the Thiel case, because atheism is relatively mainstream, so it’s unlikely people will learn about atheism and that Dawkins defends “mild pedophilia” the same day.
And btw, I’m not saying I’ve a solution to that problem—that Peter Thiel shouldn’t be “allowed” to express his political view (how much I dislike them) is neither possible nor even desirable, but it’s still worrying, for the cause of antideathism.
I’ve noticed that Sam Harris has been rather vocal about his deep concern about a possible Trump presidency, saying that it would be extremely dangerous and so on. Who else relevant to the rationality movement has been overdoing the hysterics? Or were you referring to the mainstream media?
Anyone else worried about Peter Thiel’s support for Donald Trump discrediting Thiel in a lot of people’s eyes, and MIRI and AI safety/risk research in general by association?
No, mainly because Elon Musk’s concern about AI risk added more prestige than Thiel had.
I think it’s more likely to go the other way. There are FAR more people who pay attention to Trump and normal republican politics than are currently paying attention to Thiel and AI risk. A small fraction of these being interested in Thiel and looking into AI risk is probably going to outweigh any losses.
I am, and not just MIRI/AI safety, also for other topics like anti-deathism. Just today I read in a major French newspaper an article explaining how Peter Thiel is the only one from the silicon valley to support the “populist demagogue Trump” and in the same article that he also has this weird idea that death might ultimately be a curable disease...
I know that reverse stupidity isn’t intelligence, and about the halo effect, and that Peter Thiel having disgusting (to me, and to most French citizen) political tastes have no bearing on him being right or wrong about death, but many people will end up associating antideathism with being a Trump-supporting lunatic :/
So in which way are you different from someone who, say, thinks that Peter Thiel has disgusting (to him and a lot of other people) tastes in sex and so will end up associating antideathism with being a moral degenerate?
Well, I would consider it worrying if a major public advocate of antideathism were also publically advocating a sexuality that is considered disgusting by most people—like say pedophilia or zoophilia.
It is an unfortunate state of the world, because sexual (or political) preference shouldn’t have any significant impact on how you evaluate their position on non-related topics, but that’s how the world works.
Consider someone who never really thought about antideathism, open the newspaper the morning, reads about that person who publically advocate disgusting political/sexual/whatever opinions, and then learn in that article that he also “considers death to be a curable disease”. What will happen ? The person will bundle “death is a curable disease” has the kind of opinions disgusting persons have, and reject it. That’s why I’m worried about—it’s bad in term of PR when the spokeperson of something unusual you support also happen to be considered “disgusting” by many.
The same happens, for example, when Dawkins takes positions that are disgusting for many people about what he calls “mild pedophilia”—unrelated to whatever Dawkins is right or wrong about it, it does reflect badly on atheism, that a major public advocate of atheism also happens to be a public advocate of something considered “disgusting” by many. Except that it’s even worse in the Thiel case, because atheism is relatively mainstream, so it’s unlikely people will learn about atheism and that Dawkins defends “mild pedophilia” the same day.
And btw, I’m not saying I’ve a solution to that problem—that Peter Thiel shouldn’t be “allowed” to express his political view (how much I dislike them) is neither possible nor even desirable, but it’s still worrying, for the cause of antideathism.
I think you overrate the impact of reading a newspaper article. It doesn’t trigger strong feelings.
Not me.
In general, I think hysterics over Trump are much overdone.
What hysterics are you thinking of, specifically?
I’ve noticed that Sam Harris has been rather vocal about his deep concern about a possible Trump presidency, saying that it would be extremely dangerous and so on. Who else relevant to the rationality movement has been overdoing the hysterics? Or were you referring to the mainstream media?
Oh, I was talking about general, mainstream hysterics (go look at pretty much any mass media for examples), not about anything rationality-connected.
Oh okay, I see.