If you tried to approximate The Rules because they were too computationally expensive to use directly, then, no matter how necessary that compromise might be, you would still end doing less than optimal.
You say that like it’s a bad thing. Your statement implies that something that is “necessary” is not necessary.
Just this morning I gave a presentation on the use of Bayesian methods for automatically predicting the functions of newly sequenced genes. The authors of the method I presented used the approximation
P(A, B, C) ~ P(A) x P(B|A) x P(C|A)
because it would have been difficult to compute P(C | B, A), and they didn’t think B and C were correlated. Your statement condemns them as “less than optimal”. But a sub-optimal answer you can compute is better than an optimal answer that you can’t.
Do only that which you must do, and which you cannot do in any other way.
I am willing to entertain the notion that this is not utter foolishness, if you can provide us with some examples—say, ten or twenty—of scientists who had success using this approach. I would be surprised if the ratio of important non-mathematical discoveries made by following this maxim, to those made by violating it, was greater than .05. Even mathematicians often have many possible ways of approaching their problems.
David,
Building an AGI and setting it at “human level” would be of limited value. Setting it at “human level” plus epsilon could be dangerous. Humans on their own are intelligent enough to develop dangerous technologies with existential risk. (Which prompts the question: Are we safer with AI, or without AI?)
Eliezer,
You say that like it’s a bad thing. Your statement implies that something that is “necessary” is not necessary. Just this morning I gave a presentation on the use of Bayesian methods for automatically predicting the functions of newly sequenced genes. The authors of the method I presented used the approximation P(A, B, C) ~ P(A) x P(B|A) x P(C|A) because it would have been difficult to compute P(C | B, A), and they didn’t think B and C were correlated. Your statement condemns them as “less than optimal”. But a sub-optimal answer you can compute is better than an optimal answer that you can’t.I am willing to entertain the notion that this is not utter foolishness, if you can provide us with some examples—say, ten or twenty—of scientists who had success using this approach. I would be surprised if the ratio of important non-mathematical discoveries made by following this maxim, to those made by violating it, was greater than .05. Even mathematicians often have many possible ways of approaching their problems.
David,
Building an AGI and setting it at “human level” would be of limited value. Setting it at “human level” plus epsilon could be dangerous. Humans on their own are intelligent enough to develop dangerous technologies with existential risk. (Which prompts the question: Are we safer with AI, or without AI?)