Even if they were to make some actual progress, most of it would probably be regarded too dangerous to be released. Therefore I predict that you won't see much more of it ever.

I'm not sure how true this is, but suppose it is. Then it seems to me that the SIAI has got a problem. They need people to take them seriously, in order to attract funding and researchers, but they can't release any evidence that might make people take them seriously, as it's regarded as "too dangerous". Dilemma.

Secrecy and a perceived lack of rigour seem likely to go hand in hand. And for those of us outside the SIAI, who are trying to decide whether to take it seriously, said secrecy also makes it seem likely that there is an actual lack of rigour.

Perhaps this just demonstrates that any organization seriously aiming to make FAI has to be secretive, and hence have a bad public image. Which would be interesting. But in that case, the answer to the original question may just be: "We can't really, because it would be too dangerous", which would at least be something.

Indeed! Think about it this way, if Less Wrong would have been around for 3000 years and the field of academic philosophy would have been founded a few years ago then most of it would probably be better than Less Wrong..

And perhaps, just perhaps, LW might have something to learn from that older sibling... I appreciate the desire to declare all past philosophy diseased and start again from nothing, but I think it's misguided. Even if you don't like much of contemporary philosophy, modern-day philosophers are often well-trained critical thinkers, and so a bit of attention from them might help shape things up a bit.