I might be interpreting Michael Vassar’s post incorrectly, but it seemed like an authentic, if radically optimistic, suggestion and not a hyperbolic or sarcastic one.
It wasn’t sarcastic. I really think that it’s fairly likely to be possible, but extremely difficult. OTOH, I think that many extremely difficult things are worth attempting. That’s why SIAI exists after all. LW posters may disagree fairly frequently, but that’s probably significantly because there are so few of us that we don’t really have time to collectively build an official correct world-view which is far better than any of us could do on our own.
I really do think my claim about the implications of developing such a technique is correct, in fact, understated, and that this follows trivially from the world having resources which are far beyond what is needed to solve its problems if those resources were allocated half-way sanely. A large number of Rokos would definitely be enough to do the job.
If I say that “if you could travel backward in time by arranging four flux capacitors into a wheatstone bridge, someone probably would have travelled back in time already, and consequently, you probably cannot travel back in time by arranging flux capacitors into a wheatstone bridge,” I am being neither hyperbolic nor sarcastic (nor am I being optimistic).
Thank you for continuing to engage after my rather silly reply; while in the process of writing a more detailed response to your latest post, I figured out what you meant originally. I now agree with your earlier interpretation of Michael Vassar’s post, though I am still skeptical of the jump between “dramatically expanding LW” and “solving all the world’s problems without a singularity.”
I am still skeptical of the jump between “dramatically expanding LW” and “solving all the world’s problems without a singularity.”
Your skepticism of the jump is reasonable and understandable. Note however that having served as President of the Singularity Institute for the last two years or so, Vassar has a great deal of experience in thinking about the global situation.
I might be interpreting Michael Vassar’s post incorrectly, but it seemed like an authentic, if radically optimistic, suggestion and not a hyperbolic or sarcastic one.
It wasn’t sarcastic. I really think that it’s fairly likely to be possible, but extremely difficult. OTOH, I think that many extremely difficult things are worth attempting. That’s why SIAI exists after all. LW posters may disagree fairly frequently, but that’s probably significantly because there are so few of us that we don’t really have time to collectively build an official correct world-view which is far better than any of us could do on our own.
I really do think my claim about the implications of developing such a technique is correct, in fact, understated, and that this follows trivially from the world having resources which are far beyond what is needed to solve its problems if those resources were allocated half-way sanely. A large number of Rokos would definitely be enough to do the job.
I’ll redouble my efforts, then. This topic also probably deserves a thread of its own.
If I say that “if you could travel backward in time by arranging four flux capacitors into a wheatstone bridge, someone probably would have travelled back in time already, and consequently, you probably cannot travel back in time by arranging flux capacitors into a wheatstone bridge,” I am being neither hyperbolic nor sarcastic (nor am I being optimistic).
Thank you for continuing to engage after my rather silly reply; while in the process of writing a more detailed response to your latest post, I figured out what you meant originally. I now agree with your earlier interpretation of Michael Vassar’s post, though I am still skeptical of the jump between “dramatically expanding LW” and “solving all the world’s problems without a singularity.”
Your skepticism of the jump is reasonable and understandable. Note however that having served as President of the Singularity Institute for the last two years or so, Vassar has a great deal of experience in thinking about the global situation.
My pleasure.
Agreed.