Full Size I made this map for myself, but it quickly turned into a tool which I use to help find productive discussion - for example, in steering towards a common understanding of key divergences. I also find that it helps me introduce the topic to friends who are not...
I was thinking about Machine Learning in the context of the “multiverse probability mass” concept (often used by Eliezer) - which has us thinking in counterfactual universes, and some measure of how many of our alternate selves experience one outcome as opposed to another, and this led me to the thought that in that narrative frame, Machine Learning can be seen as a form of “mind summoning”.
We can imagine training a neural network by randomly perturbing its logical circuits, and making the random circuits that give the desired answer more likely (there is an equivalence between gradient descent and zeroth order random sampling[1]). There is an obvious analogy there, to “exploring locally” in the mind-multiverse until we manifest a mind that fits the outputs we desire.
Narratively, I wonder if there’s something there. Maybe it partly explains why training large ML models feels so much like summoning alien minds from alternate dimensions?
[1] Random Gradient-Free Minimization of Convex Functions. Nesterov, Y., Spokoiny, V.
I made this map for myself, but it quickly turned into a tool which I use to help find productive discussion - for example, in steering towards a common understanding of key divergences.
I also find that it helps me introduce the topic to friends who are not aware of it at all.
Maybe sharing it here will be helpful to others as well?
This is not a post of AI Risk opinions. Rather, it's a post full of AI Risk questions, aimed towards myself and others.
One of many ways to frame AI Risk is: What is the current situation for humanity with respect to AI killing/controlling everyone?
The map focuses on the following 5... (read 445 more words →)
Note: as the original post is 4 years ago, this is more of a note to self, the remains of an introspection process that was first meant to be private. I post it to challenge the part of myself that wants to stay comfortable in my beliefs, like a signal to myself that i need to write and be less afraid of sharing the results, to let my thoughts be criticised. So here goes:
i think I've experienced the same thing, at a particularly hard moment of my life. looking back, it didn't occur to me to spiritualize it, or pretend it cannot be rationally understood and communicated. The fact i could not introspect... (read 599 more words →)
