I don’t think “mouldability” is a synonym of “white-boxiness”. In fact, I think they’re hardly related at all:
There can be a black box with lots of knobs on the outside that change the box’s behavior. It’s still a black box.
Conversely, consider an old-fashioned bimetallic strip thermostat with a broken dial. It’s not mouldable at all—it can do one and only thing, i.e. actuate a switch at a certain fixed temperature. (Well, I guess you can use it as a doorstop!) But a bimetallic strip thermostat still very white-boxy (after I spend 30 seconds telling you how it works).
You wrote “They’re just a special type of computer program, and we can analyze and manipulate computer programs however we want at essentially no cost.” I feel like I keep pressing you on this, and you keep motte-and-bailey’ing into some other claim that does not align with a common-sense reading of what you originally wrote:
“Well, the cost of analysis could theoretically be even higher—like, if you had to drill into skulls…” OK sure but that’s not the same as “essentially no cost”.
“Well, the cost of analysis may be astronomically high, but there’s a theorem proving that it’s not theoretically impossible…” OK sure but that’s not the same as “essentially no cost”.
“Well, I can list out some specific analysis and manipulation tasks that we can do at essentially no cost: we can do X, and Y, and Z, …” OK sure but that’s not the same as “we can analyze and manipulate however we want at essentially no cost”.
I don’t think “mouldability” is a synonym of “white-boxiness”. In fact, I think they’re hardly related at all:
There can be a black box with lots of knobs on the outside that change the box’s behavior. It’s still a black box.
Conversely, consider an old-fashioned bimetallic strip thermostat with a broken dial. It’s not mouldable at all—it can do one and only thing, i.e. actuate a switch at a certain fixed temperature. (Well, I guess you can use it as a doorstop!) But a bimetallic strip thermostat still very white-boxy (after I spend 30 seconds telling you how it works).
You wrote “They’re just a special type of computer program, and we can analyze and manipulate computer programs however we want at essentially no cost.” I feel like I keep pressing you on this, and you keep motte-and-bailey’ing into some other claim that does not align with a common-sense reading of what you originally wrote:
“Well, the cost of analysis could theoretically be even higher—like, if you had to drill into skulls…” OK sure but that’s not the same as “essentially no cost”.
“Well, the cost of analysis may be astronomically high, but there’s a theorem proving that it’s not theoretically impossible…” OK sure but that’s not the same as “essentially no cost”.
“Well, I can list out some specific analysis and manipulation tasks that we can do at essentially no cost: we can do X, and Y, and Z, …” OK sure but that’s not the same as “we can analyze and manipulate however we want at essentially no cost”.
Do you see what I mean?