I think there’s another reason why factorization can be useful here, which is the articulation of sub-problems to try.
For example, in the process leading up to inventing logical induction, Scott came up with a bunch of smaller properties to try for. He invented systems which got desirable properties individually, then growing combinations of desirable properties, and finally, figured out how to get everything at once. However, logical induction doesn’t have parts corresponding to those different subproblems.
It can be very useful to individually achieve, say, objective robustness, even if your solution doesn’t fit with anyone else’s solutions to any of the other sub-problems. It shows us a way to do it, which can inspire other ways to do it.
In other words: tackling the whole alignment problem at once sounds too hard. It’s useful to split it up, even if our factorization doesn’t guarantee that we can stick pieces back together to get a whole solution.
Though, yeah, it’s obviously better if we can create a factorization of the sort you want.
I think there’s another reason why factorization can be useful here, which is the articulation of sub-problems to try.
For example, in the process leading up to inventing logical induction, Scott came up with a bunch of smaller properties to try for. He invented systems which got desirable properties individually, then growing combinations of desirable properties, and finally, figured out how to get everything at once. However, logical induction doesn’t have parts corresponding to those different subproblems.
It can be very useful to individually achieve, say, objective robustness, even if your solution doesn’t fit with anyone else’s solutions to any of the other sub-problems. It shows us a way to do it, which can inspire other ways to do it.
In other words: tackling the whole alignment problem at once sounds too hard. It’s useful to split it up, even if our factorization doesn’t guarantee that we can stick pieces back together to get a whole solution.
Though, yeah, it’s obviously better if we can create a factorization of the sort you want.