Eliezer, I think there’s a slight inconsistency in your message. On the one hand, there are the posts like this, which can basically be summed up as: “Get off your asses, slackers, and go fix the world.” This is a message worth repeating many times and in many different ways.
On the other hand are the “Chosen One” posts. These posts talk about the big gaps in human capabilities—the idea being that some people just have an indefinable “sparkliness” that gives them the power to do incredible things. I read these posts with uneasiness: while agreeing with the general drift, I think I would interpret the basic observations (e.g. CEOs really are smarter than most other people) in a different way.
The inconsistency is that on the one hand you’re telling people to get up and go do something, because the future is uncertain and could be very, very good or very, very bad; but on the other hand you’re essentially saying that if a person is not a Chosen One, there’s not much he can really contribute.
So, what I’d like to see is a discussion of what the rank-and-file members of Team Rational should be doing to help (and I hope that involves more than donating lots of money to SIAI).
Great post and discussion. Go Team Rational!
Eliezer, I think there’s a slight inconsistency in your message. On the one hand, there are the posts like this, which can basically be summed up as: “Get off your asses, slackers, and go fix the world.” This is a message worth repeating many times and in many different ways.
On the other hand are the “Chosen One” posts. These posts talk about the big gaps in human capabilities—the idea being that some people just have an indefinable “sparkliness” that gives them the power to do incredible things. I read these posts with uneasiness: while agreeing with the general drift, I think I would interpret the basic observations (e.g. CEOs really are smarter than most other people) in a different way.
The inconsistency is that on the one hand you’re telling people to get up and go do something, because the future is uncertain and could be very, very good or very, very bad; but on the other hand you’re essentially saying that if a person is not a Chosen One, there’s not much he can really contribute.
So, what I’d like to see is a discussion of what the rank-and-file members of Team Rational should be doing to help (and I hope that involves more than donating lots of money to SIAI).
Also, we need a cool mascot, maybe zebras.