My opinion is that serotonin has a bunch of roles in the brain (different roles in different places), but none of those roles are particularly relevant to AGI alignment, and therefore I don’t want to talk about them.
You obviously have a different opinion, and you’re welcome to write about it!
Two main theories have emerged: the “synergy hypothesis,” which suggests dopamine handles short-term rewards while serotonin manages long-term benefits, and the “opponency hypothesis,” which proposes the two act as opposing forces balancing our decisions, with dopamine urging immediate action while serotonin counsels patience.
I think the opponency hypothesis could be useful: serotonin could prevent switching tasks to something bad like addiction/mood disorders. (Though these seem more like variations of the same hypothesis than different hypotheses– patience achieves long term benefit and immediate action achieves short term rewards.) But it seems we don’t know much about serotonin at all.
No comment on whether that hypothesis is true, but if it were, I maintain that it is not particularly relevant to AGI alignment. People can be patient in pursuit of good goals like helping a friend, and people can also be patient in pursuit of bad goals like torturing a victim. Likewise, people can act impulsively towards good goals and people can act impulsively towards bad goals.
As to the “why are there two mechanisms that do about the same thing?” I guess this part of the answer:
So if you’re an animal at constant risk of having your behavior hijacked by parasites, what do you do?
First, you make your biological signaling cascades more complicated. You have multiple redundant systems controlling every part of behavior, and have them interact in ways too complicated for any attacker to figure out.
Oops, now fixed, thanks!
My opinion is that serotonin has a bunch of roles in the brain (different roles in different places), but none of those roles are particularly relevant to AGI alignment, and therefore I don’t want to talk about them.
You obviously have a different opinion, and you’re welcome to write about it!
https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/dopamine-and-serotonin-work-opposition-shape-learning
I think the opponency hypothesis could be useful: serotonin could prevent switching tasks to something bad like addiction/mood disorders. (Though these seem more like variations of the same hypothesis than different hypotheses– patience achieves long term benefit and immediate action achieves short term rewards.) But it seems we don’t know much about serotonin at all.
No comment on whether that hypothesis is true, but if it were, I maintain that it is not particularly relevant to AGI alignment. People can be patient in pursuit of good goals like helping a friend, and people can also be patient in pursuit of bad goals like torturing a victim. Likewise, people can act impulsively towards good goals and people can act impulsively towards bad goals.
As to the “why are there two mechanisms that do about the same thing?” I guess this part of the answer:
SSC: Maybe Your Zoloft Stopped Working Because A Liver Fluke Tried To Turn Your Nth-Great-Grandmother Into A Zombie
oh ok i see, it’s more towards rationality than alignment