Tiiba

Replying toMy summary of Eliezer's position on free will

My summary of Eliezer's position on free will

I'd like to propose a way for measuring a system's freedom: it is the size of the set of closed-ended goals which it can satisfy from its current state. How's that?

I also think that this is all you really need to not be confused about free will. It's the freedom to do what you will.

Replying toAI is not enough

Tiiba14y

AI is not enough

"So according to you, the laws of the universe are random. I think this hardly plausible."

I don't see why it is not plausible. It's not like the Universe has any reason to choose the laws that it did and not others. Why have a procedure, algorithmic or not, if there are no goals?

Replying toThings you are supposed to like

Tiiba14y

Things you are supposed to like

"Aesthetics is pretty reliable among humans, but what about in minds-in-general"

I don't think that's relevant. A fugue's job description doesn't include entertaining killer robots from outer space, it's supposed to entertain humans.

In general, I think any artwork should be judged (not enjoyed, but judged) based on whether the author succeeded or failed at what [s]he, personally set out to do, and whether it was a hard thing to do - whether it is creating music that is different from all other music in every way imaginable while remaining musical, or writing a novel that avoids all unrealism, or just figuring out what makes museums accept works for which "garbage" is a description, not an insult. Basically, the same way you'd judge an engineer.

Replying toRationality Quotes September 2011

Tiiba14y

Rationality Quotes September 2011

My initial guess was "keep learning, there's always more to learn."

Replying toMalice, Stupidity, or Egalité Irréfléchie?

Tiiba15y

Malice, Stupidity, or Egalité Irréfléchie?

There's also the possibility that you're being inconvenient to them. Say, vegetarians can't go to a true meat lover's party, people who get up early might need ME to get up eartly for whatever reason, and if your business fails and I live with you, that's obviously my problem.

Replying toTeachable Rationality Skills

Tiiba15y

Teachable Rationality Skills

"Let's get a bigger house, further away from work, so it has an extra bedroom in case Grandma comes over"

Not saying this is a bad example, but it COULD be the case that grandma never being able to come over is totally unacceptable. Which is also a pitfall - something can seem trivial until it goes away.

Replying toHarry Sue and The Methods of Rationality

Tiiba15y

Harry Sue and The Methods of Rationality

So, having thought about it today, I realized that I did overreact. Some of the justifications offered made sense. But I still find McGonnagal's reactions odd. Yes, a kid genius has special needs. But that doesn't mean he should be able to treat others like imbecils. It might've been just shock, but at some point it should have occured to her: I'm letting a prepubescent kid run circles around me. Even if he keeps being right, he's gonna get himself in trouble running his mouth all the time.

I know that she's supposed to be special, that most adults Harry knows DO put him in his place, but I see no reason to... (read more)

Replying toHarry Sue and The Methods of Rationality

Tiiba15y

Harry Sue and The Methods of Rationality

"HE"

Replying toHarry Sue and The Methods of Rationality

Tiiba15y

Harry Sue and The Methods of Rationality

I honestly have no idea how that has anything to do with what I'm saying.

And I read all the books, and watched the first six movies. I know what the prohesy is.

Replying toHarry Sue and The Methods of Rationality

Tiiba15y

Harry Sue and The Methods of Rationality

The infodumps are not what I'm talking about. I wouldn't believe it's Eliezer's writing if people weren't smugly going on about eigenvectors. My concern is that Harry is a complete asshole. And the unrealistic adults.

Harry Sue and The Methods of Rationality

Tiiba

15y

I've been hearing about this fic for a long time, and I've been somewhat suspicious of it. I knew that Eliezer is a pretty good writer, but that his attempts to graft Bayes onto his characters are invariably rather inorganic. On top of that, OOC is irritating to me even when I expect it.

Nothing, however, prepared me for this. I just got done reading chapter 6. Up to this point, Harry's greatest sin was dumping a Less Wrong post onto poor Minerva every ten minutes. And she understood everything, including pop culture references (when in the books, most wizards don't comprehend rubber ducks).

Now, in this chapter, Harry thought he heard a strange... (read more)

-10

AI that doesn't want to get out

Tiiba

15y

Here's another attempt to make an AI safe by putting it in a box and telling it very sternly not to leave. I don't think this safeguard is invincible, but it might help in combination with others.

The AI is, first of all, a question-answering machine. Before it is turned on, the building housing it is filled with energy resources, data disks with every fact humans have learned in the last five millennia, and some material for computronium. The goals are, then:

1) Invent a cure for AIDS.

2) This cure must destroy HIV, and only HIV. It cannot affect any human cell, or anything else, in any way not absolutely required.

3) You have a... (read 373 more words →)

-6

Peer review me

Tiiba

15y

I wrote an article that I hoped to post on the main page, but then I got stage fright and was afraid to even put it here. So I guess I'm just going to show it to whichever of you is willing to review it privately.

Any takers? Qualifications: must be a fan of Z-movies.

Rationality Quotes: December 2010

Tiiba

15y

Every month on the month, Less Wrong has a thread where we post Deep Wisdom from the Masters. I saw that nobody did this yet for December for some reason, so I figured I could do it myself.

* Please post all quotes separately, so that they can be voted up/down separately. (If they are strongly related, reply to your own comments. If strongly ordered, then go ahead and post them together.)

* "Do not quote yourself." --Tiiba

* Do not quote comments/posts on LW/OB. That's like shooting fish in a barrel. :)

* No more than 5 quotes per person per monthly thread, please.

342

Suffering

Tiiba

17y

For a long time, I wanted to ask something. I was just thinking about it again when I saw that Alicorn has a post on a similar topic. So I decided to go ahead.

The question is: what is the difference between morally neutral stimulus responces and agony? What features must an animal, machine, program, alien, human fetus, molecule, or anime character have before you will say that if their utility meter is low, it needs to be raised. For example, if you wanted to know if lobsters suffer when they're cooked alive, what exactly are you asking?

On reflection, I'm actually asking two questions: what is a morally significant agent (MSA; is there... (read 153 more words →)

LESSWRONG
LW

LESSWRONG
LW

Rationality Quotes: December 2010

Suffering

Peer review me

AI that doesn't want to get out

Tiiba

Tiiba

Harry Sue and The Methods of Rationality

AI that doesn't want to get out

Peer review me

Rationality Quotes: December 2010

Suffering

Tiiba

Rationality Quotes: December 2010

Suffering

Peer review me

AI that doesn't want to get out

Tiiba

Tiiba

Harry Sue and The Methods of Rationality

AI that doesn't want to get out

Peer review me

Rationality Quotes: December 2010

Suffering