I've encountered some confusion about which direction "geocentrism was false" generalizes. Correct use: "Earth probably isn't at the center of the universe". Incorrect use: "All aliens probably have two arms with five fingers each."
Conversation
The generalized lesson from geocentrism being false is that the laws of physics don't particularly care about us. It's not that everywhere must be similar to here along the axes that are particularly salient to us.
1
18
I sometimes hear "But isn't it sheer hubris to believe that humans are rare with the property that they become more kind and compassionate as they become more intelligent and mature? Isn't that akin to believing we're at the center of the universe?"
2
2
17
I answer: no; the symmetry is that other minds have other ends that their intelligence reinforces; kindness is not priviledged in cognition any more than Earth was priviledged as the center of the universe; imagining all minds as kind is like imagining all aliens as 10-fingered.
2
1
23
(Some aliens might be 10-fingered! AIs are less likely to be 10-fingered, or to even have fingers in the relevant sense, in lieu of specific effort in that regard! See also: twitter.com/ESYudkowsky/st)
Quote Tweet
Why? Obviously not because silicon can't implement kindness; of course it can. Obviously not because it's impossible to blunder into niceness by accident; if so, I wouldn't expect it about 5% of aliens. Rather it's that - on my model - kindness is 5% dense in one particular… Show more
Show this thread
15
Discover more
Sourced from across Twitter
Eliezer actually strikes me as a deeply optimistic person. If you read any of his earlier writings, he is often plain gleeful—at his own cleverness and rationality, at the prospect of galactic utopia. What you see is someone trying to make sense of the singularity, who delights… Show more
14
6
130
This is honestly half of AI X-risk criticism
Quote Tweet
Remembering a girl I used to work with who didn’t believe in dinosaurs, not for religious reasons but bc “It’s just so silly…” Any time I tried to get her to elaborate, she’d be like “I mean…big monsters? Like…” and mime being a T-Rex until she was giggling too much to breathe
Show this thread
9
14
201
I'm impressed so far with #vibecamp; it really has successfully cultivated a nice vibe. Its not a public park, party, or amusement park. And its not a conference. It is somewhere nicely chill between.
4
9
142







