My opinion is that Eliezer thought he needed a more technical rebuttal of Omnizoid’s post than he did. Omnizoid was wrong, pointlessly mean, and had terrible support for most of the object-level points that he did make. In general the post was just bad and that’s probably why it got no play on Lesswrong. That’s all the criticism needed. I was expecting a well-written, justifiably rude, and factually-supported takedown of Eliezer. I didn’t get it and I was disappointed. The top comment at the EA forum however directed me to that great takedown I was looking for and the takedown was even better for not being rude at all.
It’s like trying to dispute a math proof that’s written illegibly and is missing the whole middle part of the proof. Eliezer wanted to find a fatal flaw and refute the central point. But he probably couldn’t find that fatal flaw. And even if he did find one one, the real issue with the proof is the bit about it being terrible in general. Finding the fatal flaw is kind of a bonus at best and at worst finding something that isn’t even there!
My opinion is that Eliezer thought he needed a more technical rebuttal of Omnizoid’s post than he did. Omnizoid was wrong, pointlessly mean, and had terrible support for most of the object-level points that he did make. In general the post was just bad and that’s probably why it got no play on Lesswrong. That’s all the criticism needed. I was expecting a well-written, justifiably rude, and factually-supported takedown of Eliezer. I didn’t get it and I was disappointed. The top comment at the EA forum however directed me to that great takedown I was looking for and the takedown was even better for not being rude at all.
It’s like trying to dispute a math proof that’s written illegibly and is missing the whole middle part of the proof. Eliezer wanted to find a fatal flaw and refute the central point. But he probably couldn’t find that fatal flaw. And even if he did find one one, the real issue with the proof is the bit about it being terrible in general. Finding the fatal flaw is kind of a bonus at best and at worst finding something that isn’t even there!