CarlShulman comments on Thoughts on the Singularity Institute (SI) - Less Wrong

256 Post author: HoldenKarnofsky 11 May 2012 04:31AM

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Comment author: Wei_Dai 12 May 2012 08:09:23AM *  21 points [-]

I think what might be a problem is that such criticisms haven't been collected into a single place where they can draw attention and stir up drama, as Holden's post has.

I put them in discussion, because well, I bring them up for the purpose of discussion, and not for the purpose of forming an overall judgement of SIAI or trying to convince people to stop donating to SIAI. I'm rarely sure that my overall beliefs are right and SI people's are wrong, especially on core issues that I know SI people have spent a lot of time thinking about, so mostly I try to bring up ideas, arguments, and possible scenarios that I suspect they may not have considered. (This is one major area where I differ from Holden: I have greater respect for SI people's rationality, at least their epistemic rationality. And I don't know why Holden is so confident about some of his own original ideas, like his solution to Pascal's Mugging, and Tool-AI ideas. (Well I guess I do, it's probably just typical human overconfidence.))

Having said that, I reserve the right to collect all my criticisms together and make a post in main in the future if I decide that serves my purposes, although I suspect that without the influence of GiveWell behind me it won't stir up nearly as much as drama as Holden's post. :)

ETA: Also, I had expected that SI people monitored LW discussions, not just for critiques, but also for new ideas in general (like the decision theory results that cousin_it, Nesov, and others occasionally post). This episode makes me think I may have overestimated how much attention they pay. It would be good if Luke or Eliezer could comment on this.

Comment author: CarlShulman 16 May 2012 01:34:46AM *  8 points [-]

Also, I had expected that SI people monitored LW discussions, not just for critiques, but also for new ideas in general

I read most such (apparently-relevant from post titles) discussions, and Anna reads a minority. I think Eliezer reads very few. I'm not very sure about Luke.

Comment author: Wei_Dai 16 May 2012 09:48:04AM 5 points [-]

Do you forward relevant posts to other SI people?

Comment author: CarlShulman 16 May 2012 08:59:34PM *  4 points [-]

Ones that seem novel and valuable, either by personal discussion or email.

Comment author: lukeprog 26 May 2012 05:25:37AM 0 points [-]

Yes, I read most LW posts that seem to be relevant to my concerns, based on post titles. I also skim the comments on those posts.