It made perfect sense to me. All kinds of authors know that there is value in provocative communication. e.g. how about that book titled “Against Empathy”. Provocative, right? He’s agreeing with that common viewpoint, but adding that there are wrong ways to be provocative, as exemplified by that awful old email.
On the other hand, I do not understand how “the entire discussion seems downstream of this core point”. Which core point? (That this is the wrong way to be provocative? That provocative writing has a place?) I do think some people would be upset if he said too much about provocativeness.
It’s not at all clear from the apology what subset of provocative communication styles Bostrom still believes in — and finds it necessary to defend categorically before even starting to apologize — and what subset he now condemns. As far as I can tell, he still “likes” “repugnant” formulations of statements one believes as costly signals of one’s commitment to truth-telling and merely regrets that this example will turn out to be too costly.
It made perfect sense to me. All kinds of authors know that there is value in provocative communication. e.g. how about that book titled “Against Empathy”. Provocative, right? He’s agreeing with that common viewpoint, but adding that there are wrong ways to be provocative, as exemplified by that awful old email.
On the other hand, I do not understand how “the entire discussion seems downstream of this core point”. Which core point? (That this is the wrong way to be provocative? That provocative writing has a place?) I do think some people would be upset if he said too much about provocativeness.
It’s not at all clear from the apology what subset of provocative communication styles Bostrom still believes in — and finds it necessary to defend categorically before even starting to apologize — and what subset he now condemns. As far as I can tell, he still “likes” “repugnant” formulations of statements one believes as costly signals of one’s commitment to truth-telling and merely regrets that this example will turn out to be too costly.