Not all of the MIRI blog posts get cross posted to Lesswrong. Examples include the recent post AGI outcomes and civilisational competence and most of the conversations posts. Since it doesn’t seem like the comment section on the MIRI site gets used much if at all, perhaps these posts would receive more visibility and some more discussion would occur if these posts were linked to or cross posted on LW?
Re: “civilizational incompetence”. I’ve noticed “civilizational incomptence” being used as a curiosity stopper. It seems like people who use the phrase typically don’t do much to delve in to the specific failure modes civilization is falling prey to in the scenario they’re analyzing. Heaven forbid that we try to come up with a precise description of a problem, much less actually attempt to solve it.
I too, have seen it used too early or in contexts where it probably shouldn’t have been used. As long as people don’t use it so much as an explanation for something, but rather as a description or judgement, its use as a curiosity stopper is avoidable.
So I suppose there is a difference between saying “bad thing x happens because of civilisational incompetence”, and “bad thing x happens, which is evidence that there is civilisational incompetence.”
Separate to this concern is that it also has a slight Lesswrong-exceptionalism ‘peering at the world from above the sanity waterline’ vibe to it as well. But that’s no biggie.
Not all of the MIRI blog posts get cross posted to Lesswrong. Examples include the recent post AGI outcomes and civilisational competence and most of the conversations posts. Since it doesn’t seem like the comment section on the MIRI site gets used much if at all, perhaps these posts would receive more visibility and some more discussion would occur if these posts were linked to or cross posted on LW?
Re: “civilizational incompetence”. I’ve noticed “civilizational incomptence” being used as a curiosity stopper. It seems like people who use the phrase typically don’t do much to delve in to the specific failure modes civilization is falling prey to in the scenario they’re analyzing. Heaven forbid that we try to come up with a precise description of a problem, much less actually attempt to solve it.
(See also: http://celandine13.livejournal.com/33599.html)
I too, have seen it used too early or in contexts where it probably shouldn’t have been used. As long as people don’t use it so much as an explanation for something, but rather as a description or judgement, its use as a curiosity stopper is avoidable.
So I suppose there is a difference between saying “bad thing x happens because of civilisational incompetence”, and “bad thing x happens, which is evidence that there is civilisational incompetence.”
Separate to this concern is that it also has a slight Lesswrong-exceptionalism ‘peering at the world from above the sanity waterline’ vibe to it as well. But that’s no biggie.
I had the same thought when I read Hayworth’s recent interview. It’s really good.