Adding to the Cons, it isn’t desirable for SingInst to make itself more affiliated with Lesswrong. Lesswrong users say all sorts of things that SingInst people cannot say and do not agree with. They can (and should) also be far more free to make candid assessments of the merits of pieces of academic work.
For example lesswrong folks can cavalierly dismiss Wang’s thoughts on AGI and discount him as an expert while SingInst folks must show respect according to his status and power, only disagreeing indirectly via academic publications. So I consider Luke’s decision to publicly post the Wang conversation (and similar conversations) to be a mistake and this kind of thing would be exacerbated by stronger Lesswrong/SIAI association.
Adding to the Cons, it isn’t desirable for SingInst to make itself more affiliated with Lesswrong. Lesswrong users say all sorts of things that SingInst people cannot say and do not agree with. They can (and should) also be far more free to make candid assessments of the merits of pieces of academic work.
For example lesswrong folks can cavalierly dismiss Wang’s thoughts on AGI and discount him as an expert while SingInst folks must show respect according to his status and power, only disagreeing indirectly via academic publications. So I consider Luke’s decision to publicly post the Wang conversation (and similar conversations) to be a mistake and this kind of thing would be exacerbated by stronger Lesswrong/SIAI association.
Agreed with your broader point; disagree that the decision to post the conversation here was a mistake.