I think it was bad in the short term (it was at least a distraction, and maybe tainted AI safety by association although I don’t have any personal knowledge of that), but probably good in the long run, because it gave people a good understanding of one political phenomenon (i.e., the giving and taking of offense) which let them better navigate similar situations in the future. In other words, if the debate hadn’t happened online and the resulting understanding widely propagated through this community, there probably would have been more political drama over time because people wouldn’t have had a good understanding of the how and why of avoiding offense.
But I do agree that “taint by association” is a big problem going forward, and I’m not sure what to do about that yet. By mentioning the 2009 debate I was mainly trying to establish that if that problem could be solved or ameliorated to a large degree, then online political discussions seem to be worth having because they can be pretty productive.
I think it was bad in the short term (it was at least a distraction, and maybe tainted AI safety by association although I don’t have any personal knowledge of that), but probably good in the long run, because it gave people a good understanding of one political phenomenon (i.e., the giving and taking of offense) which let them better navigate similar situations in the future. In other words, if the debate hadn’t happened online and the resulting understanding widely propagated through this community, there probably would have been more political drama over time because people wouldn’t have had a good understanding of the how and why of avoiding offense.
But I do agree that “taint by association” is a big problem going forward, and I’m not sure what to do about that yet. By mentioning the 2009 debate I was mainly trying to establish that if that problem could be solved or ameliorated to a large degree, then online political discussions seem to be worth having because they can be pretty productive.