Thanks for the link! I just read it all. The good: it’s very, very smooth reading—I know how well Eliezer can write, and even I was surprised at the quality—and it has some very lucid explanations of tricky matters (like why Pearlean causality is useful). The bad: it’s kinda rambling, contains many standard sci-fi LW arguments that feel out of place in a philosophy paper, and it doesn’t make any formal advances beyond what we already know here (I’d hoped to see at least one). The verdict: definitely read the first half if you’re confused about this whole “decision theory” controversy, it’ll get you unconfused in a pinch. Take the second half with a grain of salt because it’s still very raw (unmixed metaphor award!)
Thanks for the link! I just read it all. The good: it’s very, very smooth reading—I know how well Eliezer can write, and even I was surprised at the quality—and it has some very lucid explanations of tricky matters (like why Pearlean causality is useful). The bad: it’s kinda rambling, contains many standard sci-fi LW arguments that feel out of place in a philosophy paper, and it doesn’t make any formal advances beyond what we already know here (I’d hoped to see at least one). The verdict: definitely read the first half if you’re confused about this whole “decision theory” controversy, it’ll get you unconfused in a pinch. Take the second half with a grain of salt because it’s still very raw (unmixed metaphor award!)