Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I may be years late, but for the sake of posterity, I have to point out that TJIC is referring to a (false) theory very briefly considered by a character in a book by Greg Egan. I can hardly believe that he read about a conspiracy theory briefly considered by a character in a fictional book which contained such a wide range of conflicting ideas and immediately took this conspiracy theory to be a reflection of the actual beliefs of the author of the book. That he immediately stopped reading out of distaste for the imagined personal beliefs of the author and then posted here a complete misrepresentation of the plot of the book which he did not read is even more beyond belief. It appears, however, that this is exactly what he did.

Expand full comment
Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I also find Hanson to be much smarter in the socially useful way. It may be that Eliezer was 'smarter' and figured out that he did not need to study, that he can just talk people into giving him money to 'work on AI' . But as of now, Eliezer did never study anything. Autodidact is what you get when you take ambitious person and strip them of opportunity to pursue education. People dropping out by their will are not autodidacts, they just don't want to study.

Expand full comment
42 more comments...