I like this post. I think that if Eliezer had written “MIRI announces new ‘Play To Your Outs’ strategy”, it wouldn’t have helped with some specific goals he has:
Get people to face up to grim reality so that they are less tempted to violate ethical injunctions.
Get people to face up to grim reality so that they are less tempted to self-deceive or quietly condition on a bunch of optimistic assumptions.
But given that someone’s already read the “Death With Dignity” thing and internalized it as a reason not to do that stuff, I do expect that a lot of people will do better work if they’re thinking in terms of “play to your outs” on a daily basis. (Not everyone, but a lot of people.)
Like, for me personally, I think it was important that I go through something like a period of mourning and acceptance. (The big one I remember was in October 2017.) But I also don’t think that a “mourning and acceptance” vibe is the right air to be breathing hour-to-hour as I get work tasks done. (Again, speaking for me personally.)
Ok was there some other obvious event I’m missing that caused this for you or just something on your personal timeline? (I had tried briefly searching “October 2017 AI” and the Sophia news was all that I saw.)
I like this post. I think that if Eliezer had written “MIRI announces new ‘Play To Your Outs’ strategy”, it wouldn’t have helped with some specific goals he has:
Get people to face up to grim reality so that they are less tempted to violate ethical injunctions.
Get people to face up to grim reality so that they are less tempted to self-deceive or quietly condition on a bunch of optimistic assumptions.
But given that someone’s already read the “Death With Dignity” thing and internalized it as a reason not to do that stuff, I do expect that a lot of people will do better work if they’re thinking in terms of “play to your outs” on a daily basis. (Not everyone, but a lot of people.)
Like, for me personally, I think it was important that I go through something like a period of mourning and acceptance. (The big one I remember was in October 2017.) But I also don’t think that a “mourning and acceptance” vibe is the right air to be breathing hour-to-hour as I get work tasks done. (Again, speaking for me personally.)
That’s a great distinction, thank you for making it. Also a great example of a Third Alternative.
October 2017… because that’s when Sophia was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship?
AlphaGo Zero was published then.
Thank you!
No. :P
Ok was there some other obvious event I’m missing that caused this for you or just something on your personal timeline? (I had tried briefly searching “October 2017 AI” and the Sophia news was all that I saw.)