Gabriel comments on The Singularity Institute's Arrogance Problem - Less Wrong

63 Post author: lukeprog 18 January 2012 10:30PM

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Comment author: Gabriel 22 January 2012 07:03:48PM 2 points [-]

I'm pretty sure you flipped the fraction upside-down here. Shouldn't it be perceived difficulty of the task divided by perceived competence? Gifted high-school student who boldly declares that he will develop a Theory of Everything over the course of summer vacation is arrogant (low competence, high difficulty). Top-notch theoretical physicist who boldly declares that he will solve a problem from a high-school math contest is not. So SIAI is actually infinitely arrogant, according to your assumptions.

Comment author: thomblake 23 January 2012 05:05:20PM 1 point [-]

I'm pretty sure I did too. But the whole explanation seems much less intuitive to me now, so I'll retract rather than correct it.

Comment author: komponisto 23 January 2012 05:30:04PM 3 points [-]

It seems to me that the "perceived arrogance quotient" used by most people is the following: (status asserted by speaker as perceived by listener)/(status assigned to speaker by listener)

However, I think this is wrong and unfair, and it should instead be: (status asserted by speaker as perceived by speaker)/(status assigned to speaker by listener)

That is, before you call someone arrogant, you should have to put in a little work to determine their intention, and what the world looks like from their point of view.