Thanks for this honest account; I think it’s extremely helpful to see where we’re failing to communicate. It also took me a long time (like 3 years) to really understand the argument and to act on it.
At the risk of being another frustrating person sending you links: I wrote a post which attempts to communicate the risk using empirical examples, rather than grand claims about the nature of intelligence and optimisation. (But obviously the post needs to extrapolate from its examples, and this extrapolation might fall foul of the same things that make you sceptical / confused already.) Several people have found it more intuitive than the philosophical argument.
Generally, I find links a lot less frustrating if they are written by the person who sends me the link :) But now I have read the link you gave and don’t know what I am supposed to do next, which is another reason I sometimes find linksharing a difficult means of communication. Like, do I comment on specific parts on your post, or describe how reading it influenced me, or how does the conversation continue? (If you find my reaction interesting: I was mostly unmoved by the post, I think I had seen most of the numbers and examples before, there were some sentences and extrapolations that were quite off-putting for me but I think “minimalistic” style was nice.)
It would be nice to call and discuss if you are interested.
Thanks for this honest account; I think it’s extremely helpful to see where we’re failing to communicate. It also took me a long time (like 3 years) to really understand the argument and to act on it.
At the risk of being another frustrating person sending you links: I wrote a post which attempts to communicate the risk using empirical examples, rather than grand claims about the nature of intelligence and optimisation. (But obviously the post needs to extrapolate from its examples, and this extrapolation might fall foul of the same things that make you sceptical / confused already.) Several people have found it more intuitive than the philosophical argument.
Happy to call to discuss!
Generally, I find links a lot less frustrating if they are written by the person who sends me the link :) But now I have read the link you gave and don’t know what I am supposed to do next, which is another reason I sometimes find linksharing a difficult means of communication. Like, do I comment on specific parts on your post, or describe how reading it influenced me, or how does the conversation continue? (If you find my reaction interesting: I was mostly unmoved by the post, I think I had seen most of the numbers and examples before, there were some sentences and extrapolations that were quite off-putting for me but I think “minimalistic” style was nice.)
It would be nice to call and discuss if you are interested.
Well, definitely tell me what’s wrong with the post—and optionally tell me what’s good about it (:
There’s a Forum version here where your comments will have an actual audience, sounds valuable.