For what it’s worth, I find that you are equivocating in a strange way between endorsing and not endorsing these arguments.
On the one hand, here in this post you called them “the best arguments” and “tell me why I’m wrong”, which sounds a lot like an endorsement. And your post title also sounds an awful lot like an endorsement.
On the other hand, in the substack text, you say at the top that you don’t have an opinion, and you state objections without stating in your own voice that you think the objections are any good. For example, “Yann LeCun argues that the need to dominate is purely a social phenomena that does not develop because of intelligence.” Well, yes, that is true, Yann LeCun does say that. But do you think it’s a good argument? If so, you should say that! (I sure don’t!—See e.g. here.)
I think you should pick one or the other rather than equivocating. If you really don’t know where you stand, then you should retitle your post etc. Or if you find some of the arguments compelling, you should say that.
Tbh, I don’t think what I think is actually so important. The project was mainly to take arguments and compile them in a way that I thought was most convincing. I think these arguments have various degrees of validity in my mind, but i don’t know how much saying those actually matter.
Also, and this is definitely not your fault for not catching this, I write tell me why I’m wrong at the end of every blog post, so it was not a statement of endorsement.
My previous blog post is entitled against utilitarianism, but I would largely consider myself to be a utilitarian (as I write there).
Also, I can think the best arguments for a given position are still pretty bad.
I much appreciate the constructive criticism, however.
Tbh, I don’t think what I think is actually so important.
On the contrary, I think that it is really important for the writer of the article to say what they think and why. Without that, it’s just a shapeless list of here’s an argument someone once made, and here’s another argument that someone else once made, and here’s more. If the writing is not powered by a drive to discover what is true, it’s of no more interest to me than a chatbot’s ramblings.
For what it’s worth, I find that you are equivocating in a strange way between endorsing and not endorsing these arguments.
On the one hand, here in this post you called them “the best arguments” and “tell me why I’m wrong”, which sounds a lot like an endorsement. And your post title also sounds an awful lot like an endorsement.
On the other hand, in the substack text, you say at the top that you don’t have an opinion, and you state objections without stating in your own voice that you think the objections are any good. For example, “Yann LeCun argues that the need to dominate is purely a social phenomena that does not develop because of intelligence.” Well, yes, that is true, Yann LeCun does say that. But do you think it’s a good argument? If so, you should say that! (I sure don’t!—See e.g. here.)
I think you should pick one or the other rather than equivocating. If you really don’t know where you stand, then you should retitle your post etc. Or if you find some of the arguments compelling, you should say that.
Tbh, I don’t think what I think is actually so important. The project was mainly to take arguments and compile them in a way that I thought was most convincing. I think these arguments have various degrees of validity in my mind, but i don’t know how much saying those actually matter.
Also, and this is definitely not your fault for not catching this, I write tell me why I’m wrong at the end of every blog post, so it was not a statement of endorsement. My previous blog post is entitled against utilitarianism, but I would largely consider myself to be a utilitarian (as I write there).
Also, I can think the best arguments for a given position are still pretty bad.
I much appreciate the constructive criticism, however.
On the contrary, I think that it is really important for the writer of the article to say what they think and why. Without that, it’s just a shapeless list of here’s an argument someone once made, and here’s another argument that someone else once made, and here’s more. If the writing is not powered by a drive to discover what is true, it’s of no more interest to me than a chatbot’s ramblings.