shminux comments on "Stupid" questions thread - Less Wrong

40 Post author: gothgirl420666 13 July 2013 02:42AM

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Comment author: shminux 14 July 2013 04:46:19AM 2 points [-]

This calls for a calculation. How hard creating an FAI would have to be to have this inequality reversed?

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 July 2013 05:01:32AM 9 points [-]

When I see proposals that involve convincing everyone on the planet to do something, I write them off as loony-eyed idealism and move on. So, creating FAI would have to be hard enough that I considered it too "impossible" to be attempted (with this fact putatively being known to me given already-achieved knowledge), and then I would swap to human intelligence enhancement or something because, obviously, you're not going to persuade everyone on the planet to agree with you.

Comment author: Alejandro1 15 July 2013 12:02:08AM 4 points [-]

But is it really necessary to persuade everyone, or 99.9% of the planet? If gwern's analysis is correct (I have no idea if it is) then it might suffice to convince the policymakers of a few countries like USA and China.

Comment author: shminux 14 July 2013 05:14:03AM 3 points [-]

I see. So you do have an upper bound in mind for the FAI problem difficulty, then, and it's lower than other alternatives. It's not simply "shut up and do the impossible".