To me, your examples at the micro level don’t make the case that you can’t solve a problem at the level it’s created. I’m agnostic as to whether CBT or meta-cognitive therapy is better for intrusive thoughts, but lots of people like CBT; and as for ‘doing the dishes’, in my household we did solve the problem of conflicts around chores by making a spreadsheet. And to the extent that working on communication styles is helpful, that’s because people (I’d claim) have a problem at the level of communication styles.
Something bouncing around my head recently … I think I agree with the notion that “you can’t solve a problem at the level it was created”.
A key point here is the difference between “solving” a problem and “minimising its harm”.
Solving a problem = engaging with a problem by going up a level from which is was createwd
Minimising its harm = trying to solve it at the level it was created
Why is this important? Because I think EA and AI Safety have historically focussed (and has their respective strengths in) harm-minimisation.
This applies obviously the micro. Here are some bad examples:
Problem: I’m experiencing intrusive + negative thoughts
Minimising its harm: engage with the thought using CBT
Attempting to solve it by going meta: apply meta cognitive therapy, see thoughts as empty of intrinsic value, as farts in the wind
Problem: I’m having fights with my partner about doing the dishes
Minimising its harm: create a spreadsheet and write down every thing each of us does around the house and calculate time spent
Attempting to solve it by going meta: discuss our communication styles and emotional states when frustration arises
But I also think this applies at the macro:
Problem: People love eating meat
Minimising harm by acting at the level the problem was created: asking them not to eat meat
Attempting to solve by going meta: replacing the meat with lab grown meat
Problem: Unaligned AI might kill us
Minimising harm by acting at the level the problem was created: understand the AI through mechanistic interpretability
Attempting to solve by going meta: probably just Governance
To me, your examples at the micro level don’t make the case that you can’t solve a problem at the level it’s created. I’m agnostic as to whether CBT or meta-cognitive therapy is better for intrusive thoughts, but lots of people like CBT; and as for ‘doing the dishes’, in my household we did solve the problem of conflicts around chores by making a spreadsheet. And to the extent that working on communication styles is helpful, that’s because people (I’d claim) have a problem at the level of communication styles.