“4. Can I assume ‘EA-flavored’ takes on moral philosophy, such as utilitarianism-flavored stuff, or should I be more ‘morally centrist’?”
I think being more “morally centrist” should mean caring about what others care about in proportion to how much they care about it. It seems self-centered to be partial to the human view on this. The notion of arriving at your moral view by averaging over other people’s moral views strikes me as relying on the wrong reference class.
Secondly, what do you think moral views have been optimised for in the first place? Do you doubt the social signalling paradigm? You might reasonably realise that your sensors are very noisy, but this seems like a bad reason to throw them out and replace them with something you know wasn’t optimised for what you care about. If you wish to a priori judge the plausibility that some moral view is truly altruistic, you could reason about what it likely evolved for.
“I now no longer endorse the epistemics … that led me to alignment field-building in the first place.”
I get this feeling. But I think the reasons for believing that EA is a fruitfwl library of tools, and for believing that “AI alignment” (broadly speaking) is one of the most important topics, are obvious enough that even relatively weak epistemologies can detect the signal. My epistemology has grown a lot since I learned that 1+1=2, yet I don’t feel an urgent need to revisit the question. And if I did feel that need, I’d be suspicious it came from a social desire or a private need to either look or be more modest, rather than from impartially reflecting on my options.
“3. Are we deluding ourselves in thinking we are better than most other ideologies that have been mostly wrong throughout history?”
I feel like this is the wrong question. I could think my worldview was the best in the world, or the worst in the world, and it wouldn’t necessarily change my overarching policy. The policy in either case is just to improve my worldview, no matter what it is. I could be crazy or insane, but I’ll try my best either way.
I like this post.
I think being more “morally centrist” should mean caring about what others care about in proportion to how much they care about it. It seems self-centered to be partial to the human view on this. The notion of arriving at your moral view by averaging over other people’s moral views strikes me as relying on the wrong reference class.
Secondly, what do you think moral views have been optimised for in the first place? Do you doubt the social signalling paradigm? You might reasonably realise that your sensors are very noisy, but this seems like a bad reason to throw them out and replace them with something you know wasn’t optimised for what you care about. If you wish to a priori judge the plausibility that some moral view is truly altruistic, you could reason about what it likely evolved for.
I get this feeling. But I think the reasons for believing that EA is a fruitfwl library of tools, and for believing that “AI alignment” (broadly speaking) is one of the most important topics, are obvious enough that even relatively weak epistemologies can detect the signal. My epistemology has grown a lot since I learned that 1+1=2, yet I don’t feel an urgent need to revisit the question. And if I did feel that need, I’d be suspicious it came from a social desire or a private need to either look or be more modest, rather than from impartially reflecting on my options.
I feel like this is the wrong question. I could think my worldview was the best in the world, or the worst in the world, and it wouldn’t necessarily change my overarching policy. The policy in either case is just to improve my worldview, no matter what it is. I could be crazy or insane, but I’ll try my best either way.