Mentorship is critical to MATS. We generally haven’t accepted mentorless scholars because we believe that mentors’ accumulated knowledge is extremely useful for bootstrapping strong, original researchers.
Let me explain my chain of thought better:
A first-order failure mode would be “no one downloads experts’ models, and we grow a field of naive, overconfident takes.” In this scenario, we have maximized exploration at the cost of accumulated knowledge transmission (and probably useful originality, as novices might make the same basic mistakes). We patch this by creating a mechanism by which scholars are selected for their ability to download mentors’ models (and encouraged to do so).
A second-order failure mode would be “everyone downloads and defers to mentors’ models, and we grow a field of paradigm-locked, non-critical takes.” In this scenario, we have maximized the exploitation of existing paradigms at the cost of epistemic diversity or critical analysis. We patch this by creating mechanisms for scholars to critically examine their assumptions and debate with peers.
Mentorship is critical to MATS. We generally haven’t accepted mentorless scholars because we believe that mentors’ accumulated knowledge is extremely useful for bootstrapping strong, original researchers.
Let me explain my chain of thought better:
A first-order failure mode would be “no one downloads experts’ models, and we grow a field of naive, overconfident takes.” In this scenario, we have maximized exploration at the cost of accumulated knowledge transmission (and probably useful originality, as novices might make the same basic mistakes). We patch this by creating a mechanism by which scholars are selected for their ability to download mentors’ models (and encouraged to do so).
A second-order failure mode would be “everyone downloads and defers to mentors’ models, and we grow a field of paradigm-locked, non-critical takes.” In this scenario, we have maximized the exploitation of existing paradigms at the cost of epistemic diversity or critical analysis. We patch this by creating mechanisms for scholars to critically examine their assumptions and debate with peers.