The order in which an agent (AI, human, etc.) learns things might be really important.
For a superintelligence, learning some information in the wrong order could pause an existential risk. For example, if they learn about Pascal’s mugging argument before its resolution, they might get their future light cone mugged.
For a human, if they learn arguments for dangerous behavior before learning about ‘defense mechanisms’, this could have a high cost, including imminent death. See examples.
I think I could come up with many more examples. Let me know if interested.
Differential knowledge improvement / Differential learning
The order in which an agent (AI, human, etc.) learns things might be really important.
For a superintelligence, learning some information in the wrong order could pause an existential risk. For example, if they learn about Pascal’s mugging argument before its resolution, they might get their future light cone mugged.
For a human, if they learn arguments for dangerous behavior before learning about ‘defense mechanisms’, this could have a high cost, including imminent death. See examples.
I think I could come up with many more examples. Let me know if interested.