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anon85 comments on [Link] Stephen Hawking AMA answers - Less Wrong Discussion
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If your argument is that unless a powerful being is extremely safe, then they're not extremely safe, this is true by definition. Obviously, if a genie sometimes doesn't give you what you want, there is some risk that the genie won't give you what you want. I thought a more substantial argument was being made, though - it sounded like EY was claiming that saying "I wish for whatever I should wish for" is supposed to always be better than every other wish. This claim is certainly false, due to the "mom" example. So I guess I'm left being unsure what the point is.
I see you've not bothered reading any of my replies and instead just made up your own version in your head.
Your mom example falls quite cleanly into the third catagory if it doesn't fall cleanly into the first.
Unless a powerful being understands your values well enough to take them into account and actually wants to take them into account then it's not extremely safe. Yes.
Believe it or not there are a lot of people who'll do things like insist that that's not the case or insist that you just have to wish carefully enough hence the need for the article.
I read all of your replies. What are you referring to? Also, this is uncharitable/insulting.
To be honest, I'm not sure what we're even disagreeing about. Like, sure, some genies are unsafe no matter how you phrase your wish. For other genies, you can just wish for "whatever I ought to wish for". For still other genies, giving some information about your wish helps.
If EY's point was that the first type of genies exist, then yes, he's made it convincingly. If his point is that you never need to specify a wish other than "whatever I ought to wish for" (assuming a genie is powerful enough), then he failed to provide arguments for this claim (and the claim is probably false).