This is the kind of thing that works but to me feels quite not good to do—I find it pretty disrespectful of the kids. But yes, much better in many senses than other approaches.
mikbp
Karma: 147
Yes, I also wanted to add a comment that what one has to do depends a lot on the kids.
I usually like Jeff Kaufman’s parental posts a lot. They are short and insightful. I think I mostly just get a notification here as I’m subscribed at the tag Parenting, but you can check his parenting posts here: https://www.jefftk.com/news/kids
Just remember that we are just evolved monkeys and the world is very complex. We may very well not have the capacity to see the reason why the world ending because of AI is actually implausible. I have been wrong too many times to get crazy or too upset for a thing I positively know we cannot foresee—even if the possibility space we are able to see is overwhelmingly bad.
Do you know or did you think about how this could affect his schooling? With these kind of things—teaching kids stuff early—I’m always kind of afraid, as they may get super bored when in the pre-school or school they have to “learn again” (see how the others learn) these skills. And getting super bored early in the schooling process doesn’t sound like the best motivator for their schooling future.
Maybe whether it is a problem or not depends on whether the teacher realizes the kid knows the stuff and could even help classmates with the learning -or managing it well in any other way. I don’t know. Do you have thoughts about this?
I think one of the main variables is the country where one is. You account for this more locally with “Be in a place where this sort of thing is reasonably common” but I don’t think anyone in most (some? at least spain and germany) European countries worries about the police when deciding if letting kids do stuff alone or not.
There is an Avaaz signature campaign to “Establish National Licensing systems for AGI before it is fully achieved” (started by the director of the Millennium Project, Jerome Glenn) you may want to sign.
I’m not sure how fitting such a petition is for LW, that’s why I put it here. If somebody more involved (forum admins, maybe?) thinks it is worth for it to have a real post, please do it.
mikbp’s Shortform
Agree.
I consider myself a rationalist, but if I were going to recommend this post to anyone, it would be to show how dangerous fanaticism/sectarianism is—and this is not only about Ziz’s and Co. actions, also many comments here are kind of scary. It shows how single-thinking and going to the extreme about one’s convictions, even if one tries very hard to be correct, often goes extremely badly. We humans are dumb, so just don’t take anything too literally or too much to its extreme, take yourself and your thoughts with a bit of salt, be nuanced (at least nuancedly nuanced).
No wonder some people hate or are afraid of rationalist when they see stuff like this… and when they see that this is resurfaced after several years with no apparent reason.
? I don’t know Rosencranz.
I’m asking you because you say “Is it the case that the tech would exist without him? I think that’s pretty unclear” and this, in my view, depends a lot on the answers to those questions.
Is China doing well in the EV space a bad thing?
The opposite, it is good. But if Musk did not have any influence on it, this diminishes Musk’s positive impact in this field, making his impact less positive.
Oh, it is probably my mistake XD I’m also not native. I meant increase, not that it is the maximum it could be, sorry.
About Tesla, do you think it had any influence on China betting hard for EVs?
About SpaceX, do you think it makes a big difference to be ‘space-ready’ a couple of decades earlier or later?
Sure, we don’t know exactly how good EVs are for fighting climate change, but the current view is that they are needed in the context in which we are because they seem better mostly than the other alternatives. [Incidentally, since some time I tend to think that he’s probably been vastly less net-good in the past than I previously thought. Not really because of him, but because Chinese companies are beating everyone, including Tesla, with their EVs (and I don’t think he’s had any influence in China betting hard for EVs, though I might be wrong here); so if Tesla would have not existed, the adoption of EVs would just have been only delayed for few years (and mostly only in the west). So his net-positive contribution -for me and now- seems much lower than it seemed before.] But this, of course, is not what I am asking for.
Maybe Hitler, by sheer chance, killed someone who had been much worse than him. But this would not make him be net-positive in the sense of this question (eg. we’d had other ways to deal with that person -even if the odds that we did are very small).
But probably I have not been clear enough, sure.
Sure, but one can assess it at any point. I’m not asking about whether he will end up being net-positive or net-negative overall in the long run.
I’d agree. But he certainly does not seem to even be trying anymore to have positive impact on solving alignment, no?
Hi, thanks.
I don’t see how what you say contradicts that the reach of his actions and opinions have increased. Did you maybe quote the wrong sentence?
[Question] Is Musk still net-positive for humanity?
For me the conversation in the example sounds artificial, it is obvious that the friend did not get what you mean. If I’d had such conversation, I’d have added something like: “If I go, sure I can pick you up. But I’m not sure when I’ll go” (or “I’m not sure if I’d go at all or at what time” if you really are not sure)
I am but puzzle about how your post could wreck someone
when someone does not have the capabilities to face those fears. Even just meditating is dangerous for some people because it makes them face something they are not equipped to face. In order to learn, one must face challenges with the right level of difficulty for them at that point in time. Too easy and there’s no learning; too difficult and it is a wall instead of a challenge. If the challenges are psychological or similar, this wall may be something that hurts, only hurts, with no -or minimal- gains.
I feel I’m “abusing their stupidity” when I do it. It is on their benefit and so on, but I find it in the direction of not saying the truth. I know, not the most important or relevant thing to worry or spend time thinking about… :-P