I want to pursue my comparative advantage because that’s the best way that I can help SIAI and other good causes, regardless of status considerations. Pursuing mathy stuff is only worthwhile if that’s my best way of helping the causes I consider valuable.
Or to put it more succinctly: if being a big fish in a small pond, or even a small fish in a small pond, lets me make money that can be used to hire big fish in big ponds, then I’d rather do that than be a small fish in a big pond.
(I won’t try to claim that I’ve left the status framework entirely, just to some extent on this particular issue. Heck, I’m regularly refreshing this post to see whether it’s gotten more upvotes.)
That’s a fair point, but because money is so fungible, it’s exactly the same kind of statement that you would be making if you were in fact selfish and didn’t care about existential risk at all. In the same sort of way that both a new FAI and a new UFAI may have one of their tasks be to ask for some computing power.
So while that may be the right thing to do, I’m not sure if that in of itself can be taken as evidence that you care more about existential risk than status. Although, if you take that into account, then it really does work, because you aren’t getting the status that you would get if you immediately helped the SIAI, you are instead ignoring that for a later boost that will really help more.
Honestly, the more I talk about this topic, the less I feel like I actually have any concrete grasp of what I’m saying. I think I need to do some more reading, because I feel substantially too confused.
True. It also isn’t very reassuring to know that some of the paths which I’m now pursuing will, if successful, give me high status (within a different community) in addition to the status boost one gets from being rich. I do know that I’m still being somewhat pulled by status considerations, but at least now I’m conscious of it. Is that enough to avoid another hijack? Probably not merely by itself. I’ll just have to try to be careful.
Why are you even trying to avoid status considerations? How does avoiding status considerations help you reach your instrumental goals?
Or, more precisely: what makes you think that conscious awareness and attempting to avoid status considerations will be any more successful at changing your actual behavior than any other activity undertaken via willpower?
I’m not trying to avoid status considerations. I’m only trying to avoid them hijacking my reasoning process in such a way that I think the best ways of achieving status are also the best ways of achieving my non-status goals.
I can’t completely ignore status considerations, but I might be able to trade a high-status path that achieves no other goals, to a path that is somewhat lower in status but much better at achieving my other goals. But that requires being able to see that the paths actually have different non-status outcomes.
This is very clear. Others should refer back to this for a refresher if the topic becomes confusing. I know it’s set my head spinning around sometimes.
I want to pursue my comparative advantage because that’s the best way that I can help SIAI and other good causes, regardless of status considerations. Pursuing mathy stuff is only worthwhile if that’s my best way of helping the causes I consider valuable.
Or to put it more succinctly: if being a big fish in a small pond, or even a small fish in a small pond, lets me make money that can be used to hire big fish in big ponds, then I’d rather do that than be a small fish in a big pond.
(I won’t try to claim that I’ve left the status framework entirely, just to some extent on this particular issue. Heck, I’m regularly refreshing this post to see whether it’s gotten more upvotes.)
That’s a fair point, but because money is so fungible, it’s exactly the same kind of statement that you would be making if you were in fact selfish and didn’t care about existential risk at all. In the same sort of way that both a new FAI and a new UFAI may have one of their tasks be to ask for some computing power.
So while that may be the right thing to do, I’m not sure if that in of itself can be taken as evidence that you care more about existential risk than status. Although, if you take that into account, then it really does work, because you aren’t getting the status that you would get if you immediately helped the SIAI, you are instead ignoring that for a later boost that will really help more.
Honestly, the more I talk about this topic, the less I feel like I actually have any concrete grasp of what I’m saying. I think I need to do some more reading, because I feel substantially too confused.
True. It also isn’t very reassuring to know that some of the paths which I’m now pursuing will, if successful, give me high status (within a different community) in addition to the status boost one gets from being rich. I do know that I’m still being somewhat pulled by status considerations, but at least now I’m conscious of it. Is that enough to avoid another hijack? Probably not merely by itself. I’ll just have to try to be careful.
Why are you even trying to avoid status considerations? How does avoiding status considerations help you reach your instrumental goals?
Or, more precisely: what makes you think that conscious awareness and attempting to avoid status considerations will be any more successful at changing your actual behavior than any other activity undertaken via willpower?
I’m not trying to avoid status considerations. I’m only trying to avoid them hijacking my reasoning process in such a way that I think the best ways of achieving status are also the best ways of achieving my non-status goals.
I can’t completely ignore status considerations, but I might be able to trade a high-status path that achieves no other goals, to a path that is somewhat lower in status but much better at achieving my other goals. But that requires being able to see that the paths actually have different non-status outcomes.
This is very clear. Others should refer back to this for a refresher if the topic becomes confusing. I know it’s set my head spinning around sometimes.