I like Bostrom’s book so far. I think Bostrom’s statement near the beginning that much of the book is probably wrong is commendable. If anything, I think I would have taken this statement even further… it seems like Bostrom holds a position of such eminence in the transhumanist community that many will be liable to instinctively treat what he says as quite likely to be correct, forgetting that predicting the future is extremely difficult and even a single very well educated individual is only familiar with a fraction of human knowledge.
I’m envisioning an alternative book, Superintelligence: Gonzo Edition, that has a single bad argument deliberately inserted at random in each chapter that the reader is tasked with finding. Maybe we could get a similar effect by having a contest among LWers to find the weakest argument in each chapter. (Even if we don’t have a contest, I’m going to try to keep track of the weakest arguments I see on my own. This chapter it was gnxvat gur abgvba bs nv pbzcyrgrarff npghnyyl orvat n guvat sbe tenagrq.)
I like Bostrom’s book so far. I think Bostrom’s statement near the beginning that much of the book is probably wrong is commendable. If anything, I think I would have taken this statement even further… it seems like Bostrom holds a position of such eminence in the transhumanist community that many will be liable to instinctively treat what he says as quite likely to be correct, forgetting that predicting the future is extremely difficult and even a single very well educated individual is only familiar with a fraction of human knowledge.
I’m envisioning an alternative book, Superintelligence: Gonzo Edition, that has a single bad argument deliberately inserted at random in each chapter that the reader is tasked with finding. Maybe we could get a similar effect by having a contest among LWers to find the weakest argument in each chapter. (Even if we don’t have a contest, I’m going to try to keep track of the weakest arguments I see on my own. This chapter it was gnxvat gur abgvba bs nv pbzcyrgrarff npghnyyl orvat n guvat sbe tenagrq.)
Also, supposedly being critical is a good way to generate new ideas.