This comment looks like it’s written in an attempt to “be inspirational”, not an attempt to share a useful insight, or ask a question.
I hope this doesn’t sound unkind. I recognise that there can be value in being inspirational, but it’s not what I’m looking for when I’m reading these comments.
Thanks for the feedback. I tried to do both. I think the doomerism levels are so intense right now and need to be balanced out with a bit of inspiration.
I worry that the doomer levels are so high EAs will be frozen into inaction and non-EAs will take over from here. This is the default outcome, I think.
I worry that the doomer levels are so high EAs will be frozen into inaction and non-EAs will take over from here. This is the default outcome, I think.
On one hand, as I got at in this comment, I’m more ambivalent than you about whether it’d be worse for non-EAs to take more control over the trajectory on AI alignment.
On the other hand, one reason why I’m ambivalent about effective altruists (or rationalists) retaining that level is control is that I’m afraid that the doomer-ism may become an endemic or terminal disease for the EA community. AI alignment might be refreshed by many of those effective altruists currently staffing the field being replaced. So, thank you for pointing that out too. I expressed a similar sentiment in this comment, though I was more specific because I felt it was important to explain just how bad the doomer-ism has been getting.
Others who’ve tried to get across the same point [Leopold is] making have, instead of explaining their disagreements, have generally alleged almost everyone else in entire field of AI alignment are literally insane.
That’s not helpful for a few reasons. Such a claim is probably not true. It’d be harder to make a more intellectually lazy or unconvincing argument. It counts as someone making a bold, senseless attempt to, arguably, dehumanize hundreds of their peers.
This isn’t just a negligible error from somebody recognized as part of a hyperbolic fringe in AI safety/alignment community. It’s direly counterproductive when it comes from leading rationalists, like Eliezer Yudkowsky and Oliver Habryka, who wield great influence in their own right, and are taken very seriously by hundreds of other people.
Your first comment at the top was better, it seems you were inspired. What in the entire universe of possibilities could be wrong with being inspirational?...the entire EA movement is hoping to inspire people to give and act toward the betterment of humankind...before any good idea can be implemented, there must be something to inspire a person to stand up and act. Wow, you’re mindset is so off of human reality. Is this an issue of post vs. comments?...who cares if someone adds original material in comments, it’s a conversation. Humans are not data in a test tube...the human spirit is another way of saying, “inspired human”...when inspired humans think, good things can happen. It is the evil of banality that is so frightening. Uninspired intellect is probably what will kill us all if it’s digital.
Sanjay, I just realized you were the top comment, and now I notice that I feel confused, because your comment directly inspired me to express my views in a tone that was more opinionated and less-hedgy.
I appreciate—no, I *love* - EA’s truth seeking culture but I wish it were more OK to add a bit of Gryffindor to balance out the Ravenclaw.
My gut reaction when reading this comment:
This comment looks like it’s written in an attempt to “be inspirational”, not an attempt to share a useful insight, or ask a question.
I hope this doesn’t sound unkind. I recognise that there can be value in being inspirational, but it’s not what I’m looking for when I’m reading these comments.
Thanks for the feedback. I tried to do both. I think the doomerism levels are so intense right now and need to be balanced out with a bit of inspiration.
I worry that the doomer levels are so high EAs will be frozen into inaction and non-EAs will take over from here. This is the default outcome, I think.
On one hand, as I got at in this comment, I’m more ambivalent than you about whether it’d be worse for non-EAs to take more control over the trajectory on AI alignment.
On the other hand, one reason why I’m ambivalent about effective altruists (or rationalists) retaining that level is control is that I’m afraid that the doomer-ism may become an endemic or terminal disease for the EA community. AI alignment might be refreshed by many of those effective altruists currently staffing the field being replaced. So, thank you for pointing that out too. I expressed a similar sentiment in this comment, though I was more specific because I felt it was important to explain just how bad the doomer-ism has been getting.
Your first comment at the top was better, it seems you were inspired. What in the entire universe of possibilities could be wrong with being inspirational?...the entire EA movement is hoping to inspire people to give and act toward the betterment of humankind...before any good idea can be implemented, there must be something to inspire a person to stand up and act. Wow, you’re mindset is so off of human reality. Is this an issue of post vs. comments?...who cares if someone adds original material in comments, it’s a conversation. Humans are not data in a test tube...the human spirit is another way of saying, “inspired human”...when inspired humans think, good things can happen. It is the evil of banality that is so frightening. Uninspired intellect is probably what will kill us all if it’s digital.
Sanjay, I just realized you were the top comment, and now I notice that I feel confused, because your comment directly inspired me to express my views in a tone that was more opinionated and less-hedgy.
I appreciate—no, I *love* - EA’s truth seeking culture but I wish it were more OK to add a bit of Gryffindor to balance out the Ravenclaw.