Generally, some good points across the board that I agree with. Talking with some physicist friends helped me debunk the many worlds thing Yud has going. Similarly his animal consciousness stuff seems a bit crazy as well. I will also say that I feel that you’re coming off way to confident and inflammatory when it comes to the general tone. The AI Safety argument you provided was just dismissal without much explanation. Also, when it comes to the consciousness stuff I honestly just get kind of pissed reading it as I feel you’re to some extent hard pandering to dualism.
I totally agree with you that Yudkowsky is way overconfident in the claims that he makes. Ironically enough it also seems that you to some extent are as well in this post since you’re overgeneralizing from insufficient data. As a fellow young person, I recommend some more caution when it comes to solid claims about stuff where you have little knowledge (you cherry-picked data on multiple occasions in this post).
Overall you made some good points though, so still a thought-provoking read.
Talking with some physicist friends helped me debunk the many worlds thing Yud has going.
Yudkowsky may be criticized for being overconfident in the many-worlds interpretation, but to feel that you have “debunked” it after talking to some physicist friends shows excessive confidence in the opposite direction. Have you considered how your views about this question would have changed if e.g. David Wallace had been among the physicists you talked to?
Also, my sense is that “Yud” was a nickname popularized by members of the SneerClub subreddit (one of the most intellectually dishonest communities I have ever encountered). Given its origin, using that nickname seems disrespectful toward Yudkowsky.
I don’t have a link because Twitter is very difficult to search now if you don’t have an account (if someone wants to provide one be my guest, there’s one discussion thread involving Zach Weinersmith that says so for instance), but Yudkowsky currently uses and seems to like the nickname at this point.
Sorry, Pablo, I meant that I got a lot more epistemically humble, I should have thought about how I phrased it more. It was more that I went from the opinion that many worlds is probably true to: “Oh man, there are some weird answers to the Wigner’s friend thought experiment and I should not give a major weight to any.” So I’m more like maybe 20% on many worlds?
That being said I am overconfident from time to time and it’s fair to point that out from me as well. Maybe you were being overconfident in saying that I was overconfident? :D
I don’t think I really overgeneralized from limited data. Eliezer talks about tons of things, most of which I don’t know about. I know a lot about maybe 6 things that he talks about and expresses strong views on. He is deeply wrong about at least four of them.
I didn’t mean it in this sense. I think the lesson you drew from it is fair in general, I was just reacting to the things I felt you pulled under the rug, if that makes sense.
Eliezer talks about lots of topics that I don’t know anything about. So I can only write about the things that I do know about. There are maybe five or six examples of that, and I think he has utterly crazy views in perhaps all except one of those cases.
I can’t fat check him on physics or nanotech, for instance.
I will say that I thought the consciousness p zombie distinction was very interesting and a good example of overconfidence as this didn’t come across in my previous comment.
Generally, some good points across the board that I agree with. Talking with some physicist friends helped me debunk the many worlds thing Yud has going. Similarly his animal consciousness stuff seems a bit crazy as well. I will also say that I feel that you’re coming off way to confident and inflammatory when it comes to the general tone. The AI Safety argument you provided was just dismissal without much explanation. Also, when it comes to the consciousness stuff I honestly just get kind of pissed reading it as I feel you’re to some extent hard pandering to dualism.
I totally agree with you that Yudkowsky is way overconfident in the claims that he makes. Ironically enough it also seems that you to some extent are as well in this post since you’re overgeneralizing from insufficient data. As a fellow young person, I recommend some more caution when it comes to solid claims about stuff where you have little knowledge (you cherry-picked data on multiple occasions in this post).
Overall you made some good points though, so still a thought-provoking read.
Yudkowsky may be criticized for being overconfident in the many-worlds interpretation, but to feel that you have “debunked” it after talking to some physicist friends shows excessive confidence in the opposite direction. Have you considered how your views about this question would have changed if e.g. David Wallace had been among the physicists you talked to?
Also, my sense is that “Yud” was a nickname popularized by members of the SneerClub subreddit (one of the most intellectually dishonest communities I have ever encountered). Given its origin, using that nickname seems disrespectful toward Yudkowsky.I don’t have a link because Twitter is very difficult to search now if you don’t have an account (if someone wants to provide one be my guest, there’s one discussion thread involving Zach Weinersmith that says so for instance), but Yudkowsky currently uses and seems to like the nickname at this point.
Thanks for the update: I have retracted the relevant part of my previous comment.
Sorry, Pablo, I meant that I got a lot more epistemically humble, I should have thought about how I phrased it more. It was more that I went from the opinion that many worlds is probably true to: “Oh man, there are some weird answers to the Wigner’s friend thought experiment and I should not give a major weight to any.” So I’m more like maybe 20% on many worlds?
That being said I am overconfident from time to time and it’s fair to point that out from me as well. Maybe you were being overconfident in saying that I was overconfident? :D
I don’t think I really overgeneralized from limited data. Eliezer talks about tons of things, most of which I don’t know about. I know a lot about maybe 6 things that he talks about and expresses strong views on. He is deeply wrong about at least four of them.
I didn’t mean it in this sense. I think the lesson you drew from it is fair in general, I was just reacting to the things I felt you pulled under the rug, if that makes sense.
Eliezer talks about lots of topics that I don’t know anything about. So I can only write about the things that I do know about. There are maybe five or six examples of that, and I think he has utterly crazy views in perhaps all except one of those cases.
I can’t fat check him on physics or nanotech, for instance.
I will say that I thought the consciousness p zombie distinction was very interesting and a good example of overconfidence as this didn’t come across in my previous comment.