Not really: the way the psychology works is, each person is inhibited from taking action if nobody else is. Once one person starts doing something, it often becomes easier for others to follow.
augh! No, don’t do that. (Er… don’t not do that… You know what I mean!) Right now I’m in a state of “what the heck did I just commit myself to while I suffered from a terrible moment of sanity? Given my current skills/etc, how am I going to do this?” While trying to avoid, well, retreating from “I will” to “I’ll try” or any other form of running away from the problem.
Now I see this and my reaction is not entirely unlike “EEEEEEEEK! I haven’t even begun and I’ve already made it WORSE!”
I’ve thougt about this situation, and I would like to know the context in which Eliezer said this. Was he talking about creating friendly AI? This was my first thought, but he’s also talked about the dangers of running headlong into that problem.
In the typical bystander problem, you don’t have to be a doctor or a medic, you sometimes just have to dial 911. You probably don’t need any specific skills to save the world. You just have to make sure you don’t delude yourself into thinking your actions are sufficient.
And don’t worry, I promise not to not save the world.
Save the world? From what, exactly? Black holes? Gamma ray bursts? The eventual expansion of the Sun? UnFriendly Seed AI? Asteroid impacts? Nuclear weapons? Runaway climate change? Peak Oil? The Year 2032 problem? Annoying Christmas songs?
“Make the world a much better place” seems a somewhat less ill-defined command.
Awesome.
Agreed, but on the other hand he shouldn’t say he’s doing so, because now I don’t have to.
Not really: the way the psychology works is, each person is inhibited from taking action if nobody else is. Once one person starts doing something, it often becomes easier for others to follow.
(My answer? “Yes, I’m trying.”)
augh! No, don’t do that. (Er… don’t not do that… You know what I mean!) Right now I’m in a state of “what the heck did I just commit myself to while I suffered from a terrible moment of sanity? Given my current skills/etc, how am I going to do this?” While trying to avoid, well, retreating from “I will” to “I’ll try” or any other form of running away from the problem.
Now I see this and my reaction is not entirely unlike “EEEEEEEEK! I haven’t even begun and I’ve already made it WORSE!”
I’ve thougt about this situation, and I would like to know the context in which Eliezer said this. Was he talking about creating friendly AI? This was my first thought, but he’s also talked about the dangers of running headlong into that problem.
In the typical bystander problem, you don’t have to be a doctor or a medic, you sometimes just have to dial 911. You probably don’t need any specific skills to save the world. You just have to make sure you don’t delude yourself into thinking your actions are sufficient.
And don’t worry, I promise not to not save the world.
Save the world? From what, exactly? Black holes? Gamma ray bursts? The eventual expansion of the Sun? UnFriendly Seed AI? Asteroid impacts? Nuclear weapons? Runaway climate change? Peak Oil? The Year 2032 problem? Annoying Christmas songs?
“Make the world a much better place” seems a somewhat less ill-defined command.
I’m positive that most actions that make the world a much better place would be insufficient to deal with whatever threats Eliezer was talking about.
Doing that is just finding a good sounding reason to not save the world.