Well, given what you seem to believe, you must either be more impressed with the alleged unsolvability of the problems than I am (implying that you think I would need more of a hero license than I think I would need to possess), or we agree about the problems being ultimately simple but you think it's unreasonable to try to solve some ultimately simple problems with the fate of the world at stake. So it sounds like it's mostly the former fork; but possibly with a side order of you thinking that it's invalid for me to shrug and go 'Meh' at the fact that some other people taking completely different approaches failed to solve some ultimately simple problems, because the fact that they're all arguing with each other means I can't get into an epistemic state where I know I'm right, or something like that, whereas I don't particularly see them as being in my reference class one way or another - their ways of thinking, the way they talk, the way they approach the problem, etc., all seem completely unlike anything I do or would ever consider trying.
Let's say when I'd discovered Gary Drescher, he'd previously solved 'free will' the same way I had, but had spent decades using the same type of approaches I would intend to use on trying to produce a good nonperson predicate. Then although it would be only N=1, and I do kinda intend to surpass Drescher, I would still be nervous on account of this relevant evidence. The philosophers who can't agree on free will seem like entirely different sorts of creatures to me.
but you think it's unreasonable to try to solve some ultimately simple problems with the fate of the world at stake
To be clear, I'm not afraid that you'll fail to solve one or more philosophical problems and waste your donors' money. If that was the only worry I'd certainly want you to try. (ETA: Well, aside from the problem of shortening AI timelines.) What I'm afraid of is that you'll solve them incorrectly while thinking that you've solved them correctly.
I recall you used to often say that you've "solved metaethics". But when I looked at yo...
On the subject of how an FAI team can avoid accidentally creating a UFAI, Carl Shulman wrote:
In the history of philosophy, there have been many steps in the right direction, but virtually no significant problems have been fully solved, such that philosophers can agree that some proposed idea can be the last words on a given subject. An FAI design involves making many explicit or implicit philosophical assumptions, many of which may then become fixed forever as governing principles for a new reality. They'll end up being last words on their subjects, whether we like it or not. Given the history of philosophy and applying the outside view, how can an FAI team possibly reach "very high standards of proof" regarding the safety of a design? But if we can foresee that they can't, then what is the point of aiming for that predictable outcome now?
Until recently I haven't paid a lot of attention to the discussions here about inside view vs outside view, because the discussions have tended to focus on the applicability of these views to the problem of predicting intelligence explosion. It seemed obvious to me that outside views can't possibly rule out intelligence explosion scenarios, and even a small probability of a future intelligence explosion would justify a much higher than current level of investment in preparing for that possibility. But given that the inside vs outside view debate may also be relevant to the "FAI Endgame", I read up on Eliezer and Luke's most recent writings on the subject... and found them to be unobjectionable. Here's Eliezer:
Does anyone want to argue that Eliezer's criteria for using the outside view are wrong, or don't apply here?
And Luke:
These ideas seem harder to apply, so I'll ask for readers' help. What reference classes should we use here, in addition to past attempts to solve philosophical problems? What inside view adjustments could a future FAI team make, such that they might justifiably overcome (the most obvious-to-me) outside view's conclusion that they're very unlikely to be in the possession of complete and fully correct solutions to a diverse range of philosophical problems?