This strikes me as a demand for particular proof.
It wasn't intended to be - more incredulity. I thought this was a really important piece of the puzzle, so expected there'd be something at all by now. I appreciate your point: that this is a ridiculously huge problem and SIAI is ridiculously small.
However, human general intelligences don't go FOOM but should be able to do the work for CEV. If they know what that work is.
This sounds interesting; do you think you could expand?
I meant that, as I understand it, CEV is what is fed to the seed AI. Or the AI does the work to ascertain the CEV. It requires an intelligence to ascertain the CEV, but I'd think the ascertaining process would be reasonably set out once we had an intelligence on hand, artificial or no. Or the process to get to the ascertaining process.
I thought we needed the CEV before the AI goes FOOM, because it's too late after. That implies it doesn't take a superintelligence to work it out.
Thus: CEV would have to be a process that mere human-level intelligences could apply. That would be a useful process to have, and doesn't require first creating an AI.
I must point out that my statements on the subject are based in curiosity, ignorance and extrapolation from what little I do know, and I'm asking (probably annoyingly) for more to work with.
"CEV" can (unfortunately) refer to either CEV the process of determining what humans would want if we knew more etc., or the volition of humanity output by running that process. It sounds to me like you're conflating these. The process is part of the seed AI and is needed before it goes FOOM, but the output naturally is neither, and there's no guarantee or demand that the process be capable of being executed by humans.
Ideally, I'd like to save the world. One way to do that involves contributing academic research, which raises the question of what's the most effective way of doing that.
The traditional wisdom says if you want to do research, you should get a job in a university. But for the most part the system seems to be set up so that you first spend a long time working for someone else and research their ideas, after which you can lead your own group, but then most of your time will be spent on applying for grants and other administrative trivia rather than actually researching the interesting stuff. Also, in Finland at least, all professors need to also spend time doing teaching, so that's another time sink.
I suspect I would have more time to actually dedicate on research, and I could get doing it quicker, if I took a part-time job and did the research in my spare time. E.g. the recommended rates for a freelance journalist in Finland would allow me to spend a week each month doing work and three weeks doing research, of course assuming that I can pull off the freelance journalism part.
What (dis)advantages does this have compared to the traditional model?
Some advantages:
Some disadvantages:
EDIT: Note that while I certainly do appreciate comments specific to my situation, I posted this over at LW and not Discussion because I was hoping the discussion would also be useful for others who might be considering an academic path. So feel free to also provide commentary that's US-specific, say.