I think your original phrasing made it sound kinda like I thought that we should go full steam ahead on experimental/applied research. I agree with MIRI that people should be doing more philosophical/theoretical work related to FAI, at least on the margin. The position I was taking in the thread you linked was about the difficulty of such research, not its value.
With regard to the question itself, Christian’s point is a good one. If you’re solely concerned with building capability, alternating between theory and experimentation, or even doing them in parallel, seems optimal. If you care about safety as well, it’s probably better to cross the finish line during a “theory” cycle than an “experimentation” cycle.
I think your original phrasing made it sound kinda like I thought that we should go full steam ahead on experimental/applied research. I agree with MIRI that people should be doing more philosophical/theoretical work related to FAI, at least on the margin. The position I was taking in the thread you linked was about the difficulty of such research, not its value.
With regard to the question itself, Christian’s point is a good one. If you’re solely concerned with building capability, alternating between theory and experimentation, or even doing them in parallel, seems optimal. If you care about safety as well, it’s probably better to cross the finish line during a “theory” cycle than an “experimentation” cycle.