Oh, sorry. I forgot this was still the same thread where you complained about the Socratic method. Please understand that I’m not trying to be condescending or sneaky or anything by using it; I just reflexively use that approach in discourse because that’s how I think things out internally.
I understood CEV to mean something like this:
Do what I want. In the event that that would do something I’d actually rather not happen after all, substitute “no, I mean do what I really want”. If “what I want” turns out to not be well-defined, then say so and shut down.
A good example of extrapolated vs. expressed volition would be this: I ask you for the comics page of the newspaper, but you happen to know that, on this particular day, all the jokes are flat or offensive, and that I would actually be annoyed rather than entertained by reading it. In my state of ignorance, I might think I wanted you to hand me the comics, but I would actually prefer you execute a less naive algorithm, one that leads you to (for example) raise your concerns and give me the chance to back out.
Basically, it’s the ultimate “do what I mean” system.
See, the thing is, when I ask what something means, or how it works, that generally is meant to request information regarding meaning or mechanism. When I receive instead an example intended to illustrate just how much I should really want this thing that I am trying to figure out, an alarm bell goes off in my head. Aha, I think. I am in a conversation with Marketing or Sales. I wonder how I can get this guy to shift my call to either Engineering or Tech Support?
But that is probably unfair to you. You didn’t write the CEV document (or poem or whatever it is). You are just some slob like me trying to figure it out. You prefer to interpret it hopefully, in a way that makes it attractive to you. That is the kind of person you are. I prefer to suspect the worst until someone spells out the details. That is the kind of person I am.
I think I try to interpret what I read as something worth reading; words should draw useful distinctions, political ideas should challenge my assumptions, and so forth.
Getting back to your point, though, I always understood CEV as the definition of a desideratum rather than a strategy for implementation, the latter being a Hard Problem that the authors are Working On and will have a solution for Real Soon Now. If you prefer code to specs, then I believe the standard phrase is “feel free” (to implement it yourself).
Oh, sorry. I forgot this was still the same thread where you complained about the Socratic method. Please understand that I’m not trying to be condescending or sneaky or anything by using it; I just reflexively use that approach in discourse because that’s how I think things out internally.
I understood CEV to mean something like this:
Do what I want. In the event that that would do something I’d actually rather not happen after all, substitute “no, I mean do what I really want”. If “what I want” turns out to not be well-defined, then say so and shut down.
A good example of extrapolated vs. expressed volition would be this: I ask you for the comics page of the newspaper, but you happen to know that, on this particular day, all the jokes are flat or offensive, and that I would actually be annoyed rather than entertained by reading it. In my state of ignorance, I might think I wanted you to hand me the comics, but I would actually prefer you execute a less naive algorithm, one that leads you to (for example) raise your concerns and give me the chance to back out.
Basically, it’s the ultimate “do what I mean” system.
See, the thing is, when I ask what something means, or how it works, that generally is meant to request information regarding meaning or mechanism. When I receive instead an example intended to illustrate just how much I should really want this thing that I am trying to figure out, an alarm bell goes off in my head. Aha, I think. I am in a conversation with Marketing or Sales. I wonder how I can get this guy to shift my call to either Engineering or Tech Support?
But that is probably unfair to you. You didn’t write the CEV document (or poem or whatever it is). You are just some slob like me trying to figure it out. You prefer to interpret it hopefully, in a way that makes it attractive to you. That is the kind of person you are. I prefer to suspect the worst until someone spells out the details. That is the kind of person I am.
I think I try to interpret what I read as something worth reading; words should draw useful distinctions, political ideas should challenge my assumptions, and so forth.
Getting back to your point, though, I always understood CEV as the definition of a desideratum rather than a strategy for implementation, the latter being a Hard Problem that the authors are Working On and will have a solution for Real Soon Now. If you prefer code to specs, then I believe the standard phrase is “feel free” (to implement it yourself).
Touche’
It probably won’t do what you want. It is somehow based on the mass of humanity—and not just on you. Think: committee.