How is “getting a Ph.D. in philosophy” (as a formal distinction) helpful to this goal? Purely as a source of funding? Attempt to stimulate academia from the inside to work on the problem?
As a source of funding, because SIAI is only one institution, whereas there are hundreds of decent philosophy departments I could apply to, however scarce positions are.
As an attempt to stimulate academia, because I am slightly more optimistic than SIAI’s staff that (a few) mainstream academics can contribute usefully to the project of designing Friendly AI.
Every philosopher I’ve found of actual personal interest in the modern day has crossed it with science or engineering of some sort (cognitive psychology, AI, etc). If you want to do philiosophy because you have an actual problem to solve, you’ll do something of interest and have a usefulness test to keep you on track.
“The degeneration of philosophical schools in its turn is the consequence of the mistaken belief that one can philosophize without having been compelled to philosophize by problems outside philosophy... Genuine philosophical problems are always rooted outside philosophy & they die if these roots decay... These roots are easily forgotten by philosophers who ‘study’ philosophy instead of being forced into philosophy by the pressure of nonphilosophical problems.”
Help solve the Friendly AI problem.
How is “getting a Ph.D. in philosophy” (as a formal distinction) helpful to this goal? Purely as a source of funding? Attempt to stimulate academia from the inside to work on the problem?
Vladimir,
Yes; both of those.
As a source of funding, because SIAI is only one institution, whereas there are hundreds of decent philosophy departments I could apply to, however scarce positions are.
As an attempt to stimulate academia, because I am slightly more optimistic than SIAI’s staff that (a few) mainstream academics can contribute usefully to the project of designing Friendly AI.
Every philosopher I’ve found of actual personal interest in the modern day has crossed it with science or engineering of some sort (cognitive psychology, AI, etc). If you want to do philiosophy because you have an actual problem to solve, you’ll do something of interest and have a usefulness test to keep you on track.
--Karl Popper, Conjectures & Refutations, (pages 95-97)