If we look at this issue not from a positivist or Bayesian point of view, but from an existentialist one, I think it makes sense to say that a writer should always write as if everyone were going to read their words. That’s actually something Sartre talks about in What Is Literature?
I realize this might sound a bit out of tune with the LessWrong mindset, but if we stick only to Bayesian empiricism or Popper’s falsifiability as our way of modeling the world, we eventually hit a fundamental problem with data itself: data always describe the past. We can’t turn all of reality into data and predict the future like Laplace’s demon.
Maybe that’s part of why a space like LessWrong—something halfway between poetry (emotion) and prose (reason)—came into being in the first place.
And yes, I agree it might have been better if Yudkowsky had engaged more concretely with political realities, or if MIRI had pursued both the “Camp A” and “Camp B” approaches more forcefully. But from an existentialist point of view, I think it’s understandable that Eliezer wrote from the stance of “I believe I’m being logically consistent, so the world will eventually understand me.”
That said, I’d genuinely welcome any disagreement or critique—you might see something I’m missing.
If we look at this issue not from a positivist or Bayesian point of view, but from an existentialist one, I think it makes sense to say that a writer should always write as if everyone were going to read their words. That’s actually something Sartre talks about in What Is Literature?
I realize this might sound a bit out of tune with the LessWrong mindset, but if we stick only to Bayesian empiricism or Popper’s falsifiability as our way of modeling the world, we eventually hit a fundamental problem with data itself: data always describe the past. We can’t turn all of reality into data and predict the future like Laplace’s demon.
Maybe that’s part of why a space like LessWrong—something halfway between poetry (emotion) and prose (reason)—came into being in the first place.
And yes, I agree it might have been better if Yudkowsky had engaged more concretely with political realities, or if MIRI had pursued both the “Camp A” and “Camp B” approaches more forcefully. But from an existentialist point of view, I think it’s understandable that Eliezer wrote from the stance of “I believe I’m being logically consistent, so the world will eventually understand me.”
That said, I’d genuinely welcome any disagreement or critique—you might see something I’m missing.