I guess I’m not willing to declare the alignment problem unsolvable just because it’s difficult
I’m not aware of anyone who has declared the alignment problem to be unsolvable. I have read a few people speculate that it MIGHT be unsolvable, but no real concrete attempts to show it is (though I haven’t kept up with the literature as much as some others so perhaps I missed something)
I’m not willing to let anyone else claim to have solved it before I get to claim that I’ve solved it
This just seems weird. If someone else solves alignment, why would you “not let them claim to have solved it”? And how would you do that? By just refusing to recognize it even if it goes against all the available evidence and causes people to take you less seriously?
No, I would do it by rushing to publish my work before it’s been cleaned up enough to be presentable. Scientist have done this throughout history have rushed to avoid getting scooped, and to scoop others. I do not wish to be the Rosalind Franklin of the alignment problem.
Why do you care so much about being first out the door, so much so that your willing to look like a clown/crackpot along the way?
The existing writings, from what I can see, don’t exactly portray the writer as a bonafide genius, so at best folks will perceive you as a moderately above average person with some odd tendencies/preferences, who got unusually lucky.
And then promptly forget about it when the genuine geniuses publish their highly credible results.
And that’s assuming it is even solvable, which seems to be increasingly not the case.
No, it’s not going to get you credit. That’s not how credit works in science or anywhere. It goes not to the first who had the idea, but the first who successfully popularized it. That’s not fair, but that’s how it works.
You can give yourself credit or try to argue for it based on evidence of early publication, but would delaying another day to polish your writing a little matter for being first out the door?
I’m sympathetic to your position here, I’ve struggled with similar questions, including wondering why I’m getting downvoted even after trying to get my tone right, and having what seem to me like important, well-explained contributions.
Recognizing that the system isn’t going to be completely fair or efficient and working with it instead of against it is unfortunate, but it’s the smart thing to do in most situations. Attempts to work outside of the existing system only work when they’re either carefully thought out and based on a thorough understanding of why the system works as it does, or they’re extremely lucky.
Historically, I have been extremely, extremely good at delaying publication of what I felt were capabilites-relevant advances, for essentially Yudkowskyan doomer reasons. The only reward I have earned for this diligence is to be treated like a crank when I publish alignment-related research because I don’t have an extensive history of public contribution to the AI field.
Here is my speculation of what Q* is, along with a github repository that implements a shitty version of it, postdated several months.
Ask yourself: do you want personal credit, or do you want to help save the world?
Anyway, don’t get discouraged, just learn from those answers and keep writing about those ideas. And learning about related ideas so you can reference them and thereby show what’s new in your ideas. You only got severely downvoted on one, don’t let it get to you any more than you can help.
If the ideas are strong, they’ll win through if you keep at it.
I wouldn’t say I really do satire? My normal metier is more “the truth, with jokes”. If I’m acting too crazy to be considered a proper rationalist, it’s usually because I am angry or at least deeply annoyed.
I’m not aware of anyone who has declared the alignment problem to be unsolvable. I have read a few people speculate that it MIGHT be unsolvable, but no real concrete attempts to show it is (though I haven’t kept up with the literature as much as some others so perhaps I missed something)
This just seems weird. If someone else solves alignment, why would you “not let them claim to have solved it”? And how would you do that? By just refusing to recognize it even if it goes against all the available evidence and causes people to take you less seriously?
No, I would do it by rushing to publish my work before it’s been cleaned up enough to be presentable. Scientist have done this throughout history have rushed to avoid getting scooped, and to scoop others. I do not wish to be the Rosalind Franklin of the alignment problem.
Why do you care so much about being first out the door, so much so that your willing to look like a clown/crackpot along the way?
The existing writings, from what I can see, don’t exactly portray the writer as a bonafide genius, so at best folks will perceive you as a moderately above average person with some odd tendencies/preferences, who got unusually lucky.
And then promptly forget about it when the genuine geniuses publish their highly credible results.
And that’s assuming it is even solvable, which seems to be increasingly not the case.
Well, I’ll just have to continue being first out the door, then, won’t I?
No, it’s not going to get you credit. That’s not how credit works in science or anywhere. It goes not to the first who had the idea, but the first who successfully popularized it. That’s not fair, but that’s how it works.
You can give yourself credit or try to argue for it based on evidence of early publication, but would delaying another day to polish your writing a little matter for being first out the door?
I’m sympathetic to your position here, I’ve struggled with similar questions, including wondering why I’m getting downvoted even after trying to get my tone right, and having what seem to me like important, well-explained contributions.
Recognizing that the system isn’t going to be completely fair or efficient and working with it instead of against it is unfortunate, but it’s the smart thing to do in most situations. Attempts to work outside of the existing system only work when they’re either carefully thought out and based on a thorough understanding of why the system works as it does, or they’re extremely lucky.
Historically, I have been extremely, extremely good at delaying publication of what I felt were capabilites-relevant advances, for essentially Yudkowskyan doomer reasons. The only reward I have earned for this diligence is to be treated like a crank when I publish alignment-related research because I don’t have an extensive history of public contribution to the AI field.
Here is my speculation of what Q* is, along with a github repository that implements a shitty version of it, postdated several months.
https://bittertruths.substack.com/p/what-is-q
Same here.
Ask yourself: do you want personal credit, or do you want to help save the world?
Anyway, don’t get discouraged, just learn from those answers and keep writing about those ideas. And learning about related ideas so you can reference them and thereby show what’s new in your ideas. You only got severely downvoted on one, don’t let it get to you any more than you can help.
If the ideas are strong, they’ll win through if you keep at it.
Oh come on, I was on board with your other satire but no rationalist actually says this sort of thing
I wouldn’t say I really do satire? My normal metier is more “the truth, with jokes”. If I’m acting too crazy to be considered a proper rationalist, it’s usually because I am angry or at least deeply annoyed.