Kaj_Sotala comments on The Inefficiency of Theoretical Discovery - Less Wrong

19 Post author: lukeprog 03 November 2013 09:26PM

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Comment author: lukeprog 04 November 2013 02:05:38AM *  13 points [-]

For MIRI, the hard part is writing up the results in a way that appeals to philosophers. That's a highly specialized skill, and not one we've focused on hiring for (at our current budget). We tried to pay Rachael Briggs $20k to do it, since she had two decision theory papers selected for the Philosopher's Annual, but it was too work-intensive even for her. I think it would drive Eliezer mad to write in that style. I suspect I could do it, but it would take a lot of my time. I might be able to persuade Preston Greene to do it some day. Or maybe Kenny Easwaran, who attended our September 2013 decision theory workshop.

Comment author: Kaj_Sotala 04 November 2013 05:08:50PM 15 points [-]

If possible, I'd be curious to hear more details about why Briggs found it too work-intensive. Her giving up on it was definitely not an outcome I would have predicted.

Comment author: evgenit 05 November 2013 05:01:30PM 1 point [-]

Seconded, I am also curious about why this is hard/how the style needed differs from how lukeprog and Eliezer write papers.

Comment author: satt 08 November 2013 12:35:28AM 0 points [-]

Some of the comments on Eliezer's "Intelligence Explosion Microeconomics" suggest that his style might be too digressive & chatty by typical journal standards.