Research interests I don't currently have time to develop alone

Stuart_Armstrong

EDIT: added the "rights of parents" and "simulation hypothesis" research interests.

I've started a lot of research projects and have a lot of research interests that I don't currently have time to develop on my own. So I'm putting the research interests together on this page, and anyone can let me know if they're interested in doing any joint projects on these topics. This can range from coauthoring, to simply having a conversation about these and seeing where that goes.

The possible research topics are:

Reduced impact AI (this is one I'm certainly going to be returning to, once I have the time).
The Fermi paradox and universal colonisation.
Anthropic decision theory (extending it to include quantum mechanics).
How to divide the gains from trade/to negotiate/to achieve "fairness"/to avoid blackmail.
Oracle AI and the (non-)differences between tool AIs and agents
General assessments of predictions and experts (including counterfactual resiliency).
The future of surveillance.
The risks of singleton world governments and mass-em worlds.
Anthropic shadows for multiple risks.
The potential limitations of the Turing test as an accurate general intelligence test.
Extending the orthogonality thesis to realistic AI designs.
Infinite ethics.
The cake or death problem for value loading: whether it's fully solved or whether similar problems remain.
The problems with total utilitarianism.
The problems with CEV (and potential solutions).
Whether AIXI would end protecting itself or not.
The rights of parents versus others in determining the genetic modifications of their children (and the efficiency of the markets in these kinds of modifications).
Exploring the consequences of the simulation hypothesis, as Joshua Fox did.

EDIT: added the "rights of parents" and "simulation hypothesis" research interests.

The possible research topics are:

Reduced impact AI (this is one I'm certainly going to be returning to, once I have the time).
The Fermi paradox and universal colonisation.
Anthropic decision theory (extending it to include quantum mechanics).
How to divide the gains from trade/to negotiate/to achieve "fairness"/to avoid blackmail.
Oracle AI and the (non-)differences between tool AIs and agents
General assessments of predictions and experts (including counterfactual resiliency).
The future of surveillance.
The risks of singleton world governments and mass-em worlds.
Anthropic shadows for multiple risks.
The potential limitations of the Turing test as an accurate general intelligence test.
Extending the orthogonality thesis to realistic AI designs.
Infinite ethics.
The cake or death problem for value loading: whether it's fully solved or whether similar problems remain.
The problems with total utilitarianism.
The problems with CEV (and potential solutions).
Whether AIXI would end protecting itself or not.
The rights of parents versus others in determining the genetic modifications of their children (and the efficiency of the markets in these kinds of modifications).
Exploring the consequences of the simulation hypothesis, as Joshua Fox did.

Looking at your links I rather suspect we are on the different sides of barricades.

Not necessarily a problem. I think I need to expose myself to the potential problems of surveillance now, and what's really missing from the research now is a good credible case that surveillance can turn a democratic government despotic. What are the mechanisms, how have they operated before, what are the warning signs, etc...

My current position is that technology is making privacy hopeless, so a full "transparent society" is the only way to deal with this - but that position may be subject to change!

Not necessarily a problem. I think I need to expose myself to the potential problems of surveillance now, and what's really missing from the research now is a good credible case that surveillance can turn a democratic government despotic.

Isn't a US government where the president claims the power the political powers that distinguished a Roman dictator from other Roman rules a good good example of a government turning despotic? Those powers being to use the military inside his own borders, being allowed to kill citizens of his own country without judicia... (read more)

1Lumifer13y

There are more failure modes than this. In general, it's fairly complicated because to discuss what's good or bad about X you need a fleshed-out value framework which will allow you to make explicit what "good" and "bad" means and which will also allow you to specify shades of grey and talk about trade-offs. It's possible to ignore this issue and just attempt to discuss what kind of situations and consequences will X lead to without evaluating things as good or bad -- but that discussion will still be colored by the values and the preferences. Having these values "invisible" and unexamined tends to... complicate discussions :-)

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Research interests I don't currently have time to develop alone

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Research interests I don't currently have time to develop alone

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