First off, one potential problem is the term “rationality” itself. MIRI found that the term “singularity” was too corrupted by other associations to be useful, so they changed their name to avoid being associated with this. I believe that “rational” may be similarly corrupted (“logical” certainly is) and finding another term altogether might be a good tactic.
That does not include the “map corresponding to territory” idea, which is very important for us. Also, it has its now negative connotation. Like “rational” has Spock, “effective” has all kinds of effective villains. At least the Spock seems harmless.
I think having two different words for epistemic and instrumental rationality would be a feature, not a bug. There’s already plenty of overlap between the two (knowing truths is useful, and can easily be subsumed in a discussion of instrumental rationality), but since they do come into conflict sometimes, it would be very valuable to have a concise way to specify which kind of rationality we’re talking about. This would also make our replacing ‘rationality’ with some other term have a function beyond euphemism treadmilling, which makes it easier to justify to the anti-PR crowd.
But I agree “effective” kind of falls flat. Is there an adjective/noun set derivable from “wins” that doesn’t make us sound like Charlie Sheen? (It can be a protologism.)
Something derived from “success”? If you don’t mind sounding like a self-help guru. “Achievement” if you don’t mind sounding like a primary school teacher. “Optimisation” is pretty accurate but I guess only really works for AI programmers or mathematicians who already have a technical understanding of it.
Also, it has its now negative connotation. Like “rational” has Spock, “effective” has all kinds of effective villains.
Huh. I don’t get that connotation at all. OTOH, this is possibly due to me not being a native speaker or consuming unusually little mainstream mass media.
First off, one potential problem is the term “rationality” itself. MIRI found that the term “singularity” was too corrupted by other associations to be useful, so they changed their name to avoid being associated with this. I believe that “rational” may be similarly corrupted (“logical” certainly is) and finding another term altogether might be a good tactic.
I think “rational” is probably fine. “Rationalist” may not be, but that’s more thanks to having the connotations of an *ism than because of its stem.
Agreed. What about “effective”?
That does not include the “map corresponding to territory” idea, which is very important for us. Also, it has its now negative connotation. Like “rational” has Spock, “effective” has all kinds of effective villains. At least the Spock seems harmless.
I think having two different words for epistemic and instrumental rationality would be a feature, not a bug. There’s already plenty of overlap between the two (knowing truths is useful, and can easily be subsumed in a discussion of instrumental rationality), but since they do come into conflict sometimes, it would be very valuable to have a concise way to specify which kind of rationality we’re talking about. This would also make our replacing ‘rationality’ with some other term have a function beyond euphemism treadmilling, which makes it easier to justify to the anti-PR crowd.
But I agree “effective” kind of falls flat. Is there an adjective/noun set derivable from “wins” that doesn’t make us sound like Charlie Sheen? (It can be a protologism.)
Something derived from “success”? If you don’t mind sounding like a self-help guru. “Achievement” if you don’t mind sounding like a primary school teacher. “Optimisation” is pretty accurate but I guess only really works for AI programmers or mathematicians who already have a technical understanding of it.
Huh. I don’t get that connotation at all. OTOH, this is possibly due to me not being a native speaker or consuming unusually little mainstream mass media.