“Cleverer,” I think, is the right way of phrasing things. Evolution isn’t wise; as Eliezer said, “evolutions are dumb.” If there was a person who came up with the same sort of responses as evolution did, we’d regard her as wasteful, callous, and myopic—but extremely, extremely clever. We might even imagine that her main objective was to show us how clever she was.
Likewise, free markets are generally more clever than wise, although they are much wiser than evolution.
“Cleverer,” I think, is the right way of phrasing things.
If you find it useful to tell yourself that evolution is cleverer than you then by all means go ahead. But if you are telling me that evolution is cleverer than me then I’m telling you that you are wrong. Evolutions are stupid. I would grant you ‘more patient’. I would not necessarily object to “know better than you” either, even if I wouldn’t use the line myself. It would at least apply to those areas where evolution and I have similar optimisation goals and inputs.
We might even imagine that her main objective was to show us how clever she was.
That is… the totally wrong way to go about worshipping her. If evolution had a goal to show of cleverness it’d look entirely different to what we see.
Likewise, free markets are generally more clever than wise, although they are much wiser than evolution.
Markets are way more clever than me. I expect them to be as clever as the cleverest trader and then some. The best I can expect to do is to provide the market with insider information on the rare occasion that I have access to it.
“Cleverer,” I think, is the right way of phrasing things. Evolution isn’t wise; as Eliezer said, “evolutions are dumb.” If there was a person who came up with the same sort of responses as evolution did, we’d regard her as wasteful, callous, and myopic—but extremely, extremely clever. We might even imagine that her main objective was to show us how clever she was.
Likewise, free markets are generally more clever than wise, although they are much wiser than evolution.
If you find it useful to tell yourself that evolution is cleverer than you then by all means go ahead. But if you are telling me that evolution is cleverer than me then I’m telling you that you are wrong. Evolutions are stupid. I would grant you ‘more patient’. I would not necessarily object to “know better than you” either, even if I wouldn’t use the line myself. It would at least apply to those areas where evolution and I have similar optimisation goals and inputs.
That is… the totally wrong way to go about worshipping her. If evolution had a goal to show of cleverness it’d look entirely different to what we see.
Markets are way more clever than me. I expect them to be as clever as the cleverest trader and then some. The best I can expect to do is to provide the market with insider information on the rare occasion that I have access to it.