The Singularity Institute's Arrogance Problem

lukeprog

84 The Singularity Institute's Arrogance Problem

by lukeprog

18th Jan 2012

1 min read

307

84

I intended Leveling Up in Rationality to communicate this:

Despite worries that extreme rationality isn't that great, I think there's reason to hope that it can be great if some other causal factors are flipped the right way (e.g. mastery over akrasia). Here are some detailed examples I can share because they're from my own life...

But some people seem to have read it and heard this instead:

I'm super-awesome. Don't you wish you were more like me? Yay rationality!

This failure (on my part) fits into a larger pattern of the Singularity Institute seeming too arrogant and (perhaps) being too arrogant. As one friend recently told me:

At least among Caltech undergrads and academic mathematicians, it's taboo to toot your own horn. In these worlds, one's achievements speak for themselves, so whether one is a Fields Medalist or a failure, one gains status purely passively, and must appear not to care about being smart or accomplished. I think because you and Eliezer don't have formal technical training, you don't instinctively grasp this taboo. Thus Eliezer's claim of world-class mathematical ability, in combination with his lack of technical publications, make it hard for a mathematician to take him seriously, because his social stance doesn't pattern-match to anything good. Eliezer's arrogance as evidence of technical cluelessness, was one of the reasons I didn't donate until I met [someone at SI in person]. So for instance, your boast that at SI discussions "everyone at the table knows and applies an insane amount of all the major sciences" would make any Caltech undergrad roll their eyes; your standard of an "insane amount" seems to be relative to the general population, not relative to actual scientists. And posting a list of powers you've acquired doesn't make anyone any more impressed than they already were, and isn't a high-status move.

So, I have a few questions:

What are the most egregious examples of SI's arrogance?
On which subjects and in which ways is SI too arrogant? Are there subjects and ways in which SI isn't arrogant enough?
What should SI do about this?

Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI)SignalingSocial Status

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84 The Singularity Institute's Arrogance Problem

by lukeprog

18th Jan 2012

1 min read

307

84

I intended Leveling Up in Rationality to communicate this:

Despite worries that extreme rationality isn't that great, I think there's reason to hope that it can be great if some other causal factors are flipped the right way (e.g. mastery over akrasia). Here are some detailed examples I can share because they're from my own life...

But some people seem to have read it and heard this instead:

I'm super-awesome. Don't you wish you were more like me? Yay rationality!

This failure (on my part) fits into a larger pattern of the Singularity Institute seeming too arrogant and (perhaps) being too arrogant. As one friend recently told me:

At least among Caltech undergrads and academic mathematicians, it's taboo to toot your own horn. In these worlds, one's achievements speak for themselves, so whether one is a Fields Medalist or a failure, one gains status purely passively, and must appear not to care about being smart or accomplished. I think because you and Eliezer don't have formal technical training, you don't instinctively grasp this taboo. Thus Eliezer's claim of world-class mathematical ability, in combination with his lack of technical publications, make it hard for a mathematician to take him seriously, because his social stance doesn't pattern-match to anything good. Eliezer's arrogance as evidence of technical cluelessness, was one of the reasons I didn't donate until I met [someone at SI in person]. So for instance, your boast that at SI discussions "everyone at the table knows and applies an insane amount of all the major sciences" would make any Caltech undergrad roll their eyes; your standard of an "insane amount" seems to be relative to the general population, not relative to actual scientists. And posting a list of powers you've acquired doesn't make anyone any more impressed than they already were, and isn't a high-status move.

So, I have a few questions:

What are the most egregious examples of SI's arrogance?
On which subjects and in which ways is SI too arrogant? Are there subjects and ways in which SI isn't arrogant enough?
What should SI do about this?

Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI)SignalingSocial Status

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XiXiDu14y10

...throughout the sequences EY frequently presents himself as possessing the intellectual horsepower and insight to transform the world in "impossible" ways...

I cannot think of one example of a claim along those lines.

The closest I can think of right now is the following quote from Eliezer's January 2010 video Q&A:

So if I got hit by a meteor right now, what would happen is that Michael Vassar would take over responsibility for seeing the planet through to safety, and say ‘Yeah I’m personally just going to get this done, not going to rely on anyone else to do it for me, this is my problem, I have to handle it.’ And Marcello Herreshoff would be the one who would be tasked with recognizing another Eliezer Yudkowsky if one showed up and could take over the project, but at present I don’t know of any other person who could do that, or I’d be working with them. There’s not really much of a motive in a project like this one to have the project split into pieces; whoever can do work on it is likely to work on it together.

ETA

Skimming over the CEV document I see some hints that could explain where the idea comes from that Eliezer believes that he has the wisdom to transform the world:

This seems obvious, until you realize that only the Singularity Institute has even tried to address this issue. [...] Once I acknowledged the problem existed, I didn't waste time planning the New World Order.

Craig_Heldreth14y10

Yeah I remember that and it was certainly a megalomaniacal slip.

But I do not agree that arrogant is the correct term. I suspect "arrogant" may be a brief and inaccurate substitute for: "unappealing, but I cannot be bothered to come up with anything specific". In my dictionaries (I checked Merriam-Webster and American Heritage), arrogant is necessarily overbearing. If you are clicking on their website or reading their literature or attending their public function there isn't any easy way for them to overbear upon you.

When Terrel Owens d... (read more)

8wedrifid14y

You quoted the context of my statement but edited out the part my reply was based on. Don't do that. [...] The very quote of Eliezer that you supply in the parent demonstrates the Eliezer presents himself as actually trying to do those "impossible" transformations, not refraining from doing them for moral reasons. That part just comes totally out of left field and since it is presented as a conjunction the whole thing just ends up false.

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