How do you know that your desire for preserving your intelligence (by ignoring thoughts that give a sense of high status) is not a status-seeking desire itself?
Precisely. I don’t want to avoid the bad awful sinful behavior of status-seeking. I want to keep my brain in a productive, creative, open state that I suspect is associated with status-seeking, not a closed conventional conservative state that I suspect is associated with status-having.
I suspect that if you stay in the “status-seeking” state long enough without making apparent progress in actually obtaining status, you’ll probably get bored with what you’re doing and stop being productive anyway. The trick might be to feed your brain enough status signals to keep it going on your project, without giving it so much that it decides it has enough.
Doesn’t make sense that you can keep yourself in a status-seeking state without gaining status. Otherwise you wouldn’t be status seeking, and therefore, not reaping the benefits you suspect are associated with it. Unless you’re ready to delude yourself to having low status whenever you gain status.
So you don’t think there is an actual fact of the matter in regards to your status (or anyone else’s presumably). This is consistent with your stance on the usefulness of self-delusion—you wouldn’t try to manipulate your brain state by seeking to believe false things. But it does raise the question of what it is exactly that Robin Hanson is always going on about.
So you don’t think there is an actual fact of the matter in regards to your status (or anyone else’s presumably).
I don’t think so. But the state of “status-seeking” is not a belief.
Also, many different brain states can embody the same accurate belief. Eliezer probably wants to have an accurate belief about his status-level. He just doesn’t want his brain to “implement” that belief in a certain way that he suspects would impair his intelligence.
Status-seeking is not the same as high status.
Precisely. I don’t want to avoid the bad awful sinful behavior of status-seeking. I want to keep my brain in a productive, creative, open state that I suspect is associated with status-seeking, not a closed conventional conservative state that I suspect is associated with status-having.
I suspect that if you stay in the “status-seeking” state long enough without making apparent progress in actually obtaining status, you’ll probably get bored with what you’re doing and stop being productive anyway. The trick might be to feed your brain enough status signals to keep it going on your project, without giving it so much that it decides it has enough.
Doesn’t make sense that you can keep yourself in a status-seeking state without gaining status. Otherwise you wouldn’t be status seeking, and therefore, not reaping the benefits you suspect are associated with it. Unless you’re ready to delude yourself to having low status whenever you gain status.
This is a brain we’re talking about, not a truth. The question is just whether I can successfully put my brain into a certain state.
So you don’t think there is an actual fact of the matter in regards to your status (or anyone else’s presumably). This is consistent with your stance on the usefulness of self-delusion—you wouldn’t try to manipulate your brain state by seeking to believe false things. But it does raise the question of what it is exactly that Robin Hanson is always going on about.
I don’t think so. But the state of “status-seeking” is not a belief.
Also, many different brain states can embody the same accurate belief. Eliezer probably wants to have an accurate belief about his status-level. He just doesn’t want his brain to “implement” that belief in a certain way that he suspects would impair his intelligence.