Epistemic activism
I think LW needs better language to talk about efforts to "change minds." Ideas
like asymmetric weapons and the Dark Arts are useful but insufficient.
In particular, I think there is a common scenario where:
* You have an underlying commitment to open-minded updating and possess
evidence or analysis that would update community beliefs in a particular
direction.
* You also perceive a coordination problem that inhibits this updating process
for a reason that the mission or values of the group do not endorse.
* Perhaps the outcome of the update would be a decline in power and status
for high-status people. Perhaps updates in general can feel personally or
professionally threatening to some people in the debate. Perhaps there's
enough uncertainty in what the overall community believes that an
information cascade has taken place. Perhaps the epistemic heuristics used
by the community aren't compatible with the form of your evidence or
analysis.
* Solving this coordination problem to permit open-minded updating is difficult
due to lack of understanding or resources, or by sabotage attempts.
When solving the coordination problem would predictably lead to updating, then
you are engaged in what I believe is an epistemically healthy effort to change
minds. Let's call it epistemic activism for now.
Here are some community touchstones I regard as forms of epistemic activism:
* The founding of LessWrong and Effective Altruism
* The one-sentence declaration on AI risks
* The popularizing of terms like Dark Arts, asymmetric weapons, questionable
research practices, and "importance hacking."
* Founding AI safety research organizations and PhD programs to create a
population of credible and credentialed AI safety experts; calls for AI
safety researchers to publish in traditional academic journals so that their
research can't be dismissed for not being subject to institutionalized peer
review
1
2Dalcy Bremin5d
Why haven't mosquitos evolved to be less itchy? Is there just not enough
selection pressure posed by humans yet? (yes probably) Or are they evolving
towards that direction? (they of course already evolved towards being less itchy
while biting, but not enough to make that lack-of-itch permanent)
this is a request for help i've been trying and failing to catch this one for
god knows how long plz halp
tbh would be somewhat content coexisting with them (at the level of houseflies)
as long as they evolved the itch and high-pitch noise away, modulo disease risk
considerations.
4
1O O6d
A realistic takeover angle would be hacking into robots once we have them. We
probably don’t want any way for robots to get over the air updates but it’s
unlikely for this to be banned.