Although I wouldn’t think of this particular thing as being an invention on his part—I’m not sure I’ve read that particular chain of thought before, but all the elements of the chain are things I’ve known for years.
However I think it illustrates the strength of Eliezer’s writing well. It’s a perfectly legitimate sequence of thought steps that leads in a clear and obvious way to the right answer. It’s not new thought, but a particularly clear way of expressing something that many people have thought and written about in a less organised way.
To clarify—there are times when Eliezer is inventive—for example his work on CEV—but this isn’t one of those places. I know I’m partly arguing about the meaning of “inventive”, but I don’t think we’re doing him a favor here by claiming this is an example of his inventiveness when there are much better candidates.
Although I wouldn’t think of this particular thing as being an invention on his part—I’m not sure I’ve read that particular chain of thought before, but all the elements of the chain are things I’ve known for years.
However I think it illustrates the strength of Eliezer’s writing well. It’s a perfectly legitimate sequence of thought steps that leads in a clear and obvious way to the right answer. It’s not new thought, but a particularly clear way of expressing something that many people have thought and written about in a less organised way.
To clarify—there are times when Eliezer is inventive—for example his work on CEV—but this isn’t one of those places. I know I’m partly arguing about the meaning of “inventive”, but I don’t think we’re doing him a favor here by claiming this is an example of his inventiveness when there are much better candidates.