I don’t think there’s any shortcut. We’ll have to first become rational and honest, and then demonstrate that we’re rational and honest by talking about many different uncertainties and disagreements in a rational and honest manner.
Not sure I agree with you here. Well, I do agree that the only practical way I can think of to demonstrate honesty is to actually be honest, and gain a reputation for honesty. However, I do think there are ways to augment that process: right now, I can observe people being honest when I engage with their ideas, verify their statements myself, and update for the future that they seem honest; however, this is something that I generally have to do for myself, and if someone else comes along and engages with the same person, they have to verify the statements all over again for themselves; multiply this across hundreds or thousands of people, and you’re wasting a lot of time; and I can only build trust based on content that I have engaged with; even if a person has a large backlog of honest communication, if I don’t engage with that backlog, I will end up trusting that person less than they deserve. If there are people who I already know I can trust, it’s possible to use their assignment of trust to give trust to people who I otherwise wouldn’t be able to. There are ways to streamline that.
Regarding rationality, since rationality is not a single trait or skill, but rather many traits and skills, there is no single way to reliably signal the entirety of rationality; however, each individual trait and skill can reliably be signaled in a way that can facilitate building of trust. As one example, if there existed a test that required an ability to robustly engage with the ideas communicated in Yudkowsky’s sequences, if I noticed that somebody had passed this test, I would be willing to update on that person’s statements more than if I didn’t know they were capable of passing this test. (I anticipate that people reading this right now will object that test generally aren’t reliable signals, and that people often forget what they are tested on. To the first objection, I have many thoughts on robust testing that I have yet to share, and haven’t seen written elsewhere to my knowledge, and my thoughts on this subject are too long to write in this margin. Regarding forgetting, spaced repetition is the obvious answer)
I don’t think there’s any shortcut. We’ll have to first become rational and honest, and then demonstrate that we’re rational and honest by talking about many different uncertainties and disagreements in a rational and honest manner.
Not sure I agree with you here. Well, I do agree that the only practical way I can think of to demonstrate honesty is to actually be honest, and gain a reputation for honesty. However, I do think there are ways to augment that process: right now, I can observe people being honest when I engage with their ideas, verify their statements myself, and update for the future that they seem honest; however, this is something that I generally have to do for myself, and if someone else comes along and engages with the same person, they have to verify the statements all over again for themselves; multiply this across hundreds or thousands of people, and you’re wasting a lot of time; and I can only build trust based on content that I have engaged with; even if a person has a large backlog of honest communication, if I don’t engage with that backlog, I will end up trusting that person less than they deserve. If there are people who I already know I can trust, it’s possible to use their assignment of trust to give trust to people who I otherwise wouldn’t be able to. There are ways to streamline that.
Regarding rationality, since rationality is not a single trait or skill, but rather many traits and skills, there is no single way to reliably signal the entirety of rationality; however, each individual trait and skill can reliably be signaled in a way that can facilitate building of trust. As one example, if there existed a test that required an ability to robustly engage with the ideas communicated in Yudkowsky’s sequences, if I noticed that somebody had passed this test, I would be willing to update on that person’s statements more than if I didn’t know they were capable of passing this test. (I anticipate that people reading this right now will object that test generally aren’t reliable signals, and that people often forget what they are tested on. To the first objection, I have many thoughts on robust testing that I have yet to share, and haven’t seen written elsewhere to my knowledge, and my thoughts on this subject are too long to write in this margin. Regarding forgetting, spaced repetition is the obvious answer)