I believe that there are contexts in which the right thing to do is to speak what one believes to be true even if doing so damages public relations.
These things need to be decided on a case-by-case basis. There’s no royal road to instrumental rationality.
As I say here, in the present context, a very relevant issue in my mind is that Eliezer & co. have not substantiated their most controversial claims with detailed evidence.
It’s clichéd to say so, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. A claim of the type “I’m the most important person alive” is statistically many orders of magnitude more likely to be made by a poser than by somebody for whom the claim is true. Casual observers are rational to believe that Eliezer is a poser. The halo effect problem is irrational, yes, but human irrationality must be acknowledged, it’s not the sort of thing that goes away if you pretend that it’s not there.
I don’t believe that Eliezer’s outlandish and unjustified claims contribute to rational discourse. I believe that Eliezer’s outlandish and unjustified claims lower the sanity waterline. I feel no squeamishness about placing pressure on Eliezer to cease to make such claims in public even if he sincerely believes them.
I believe that there are contexts in which the right thing to do is to speak what one believes to be true even if doing so damages public relations.
These things need to be decided on a case-by-case basis. There’s no royal road to instrumental rationality.
As I say here, in the present context, a very relevant issue in my mind is that Eliezer & co. have not substantiated their most controversial claims with detailed evidence.
It’s clichéd to say so, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. A claim of the type “I’m the most important person alive” is statistically many orders of magnitude more likely to be made by a poser than by somebody for whom the claim is true. Casual observers are rational to believe that Eliezer is a poser. The halo effect problem is irrational, yes, but human irrationality must be acknowledged, it’s not the sort of thing that goes away if you pretend that it’s not there.
I don’t believe that Eliezer’s outlandish and unjustified claims contribute to rational discourse. I believe that Eliezer’s outlandish and unjustified claims lower the sanity waterline. I feel no squeamishness about placing pressure on Eliezer to cease to make such claims in public even if he sincerely believes them.