A lot of the arguments you make revolve around correlation. That leaves the question of what purpose your measurement is supposed to have.
A measurement that measures a metric that correlates can be fine for some purposes. If you however optimize towards it you might run in Goodharts law problems.
A measurement that measures a metric that correlates can be fine for some purposes. If you however optimize towards it you might run in Goodharts law problems.
Though if something nice has twenty correlates, and you track all 20 of those correlates, you are probably better off than tracking one very strong correlate. (Improving IQ test scores without improving everything else that correlates with IQ would be problematic, for example.)
It would be really interesting to conceive of a dystopia where all of the proposed metrics so far suggested in this post+comments were optimized without also leading to markedly improved levels of sanity.
We look at the moment at the possibility of a SENS board member becoming head of the FDA. A person who wants that the FDA let’s products without proven benefits on the market, if those are proven safe.
If you use the metric about people taking medical treatments that have not been proven to work, that might be a bad step. On the other hand I think most of this community would likely find a SENS board member at the head of the FDA really great.
To top it, the same person cofounded Thiel’s 20 under 20 were people were payed to drop out of school. That doesn’t go well with the goal of increasing formal education.
A lot of the arguments you make revolve around correlation. That leaves the question of what purpose your measurement is supposed to have.
A measurement that measures a metric that correlates can be fine for some purposes. If you however optimize towards it you might run in Goodharts law problems.
Though if something nice has twenty correlates, and you track all 20 of those correlates, you are probably better off than tracking one very strong correlate. (Improving IQ test scores without improving everything else that correlates with IQ would be problematic, for example.)
It would be really interesting to conceive of a dystopia where all of the proposed metrics so far suggested in this post+comments were optimized without also leading to markedly improved levels of sanity.
We look at the moment at the possibility of a SENS board member becoming head of the FDA. A person who wants that the FDA let’s products without proven benefits on the market, if those are proven safe.
If you use the metric about people taking medical treatments that have not been proven to work, that might be a bad step. On the other hand I think most of this community would likely find a SENS board member at the head of the FDA really great.
To top it, the same person cofounded Thiel’s 20 under 20 were people were payed to drop out of school. That doesn’t go well with the goal of increasing formal education.