[ExI] Eliezer S. Yudkowsky, Singularitarian Principles. Update?

[John Grigg]

Richard Loosemore wrote:
You have no idea how entertaining it is to hear professionally qualified
cognitive psychologists, complex systems theorists or philosophers of
science commenting on Eliezer's level of competence in these areas.  Not
many of them do, of course, because they can't be bothered.  But among
the few who have actually taken the trouble, I am afraid the poor guy is
generally scorned as a narcissistic, juvenile amateur.
>>>


Eliezer (I once called him Eli in a post and he responded with, "only
friends get to call me that") is in my view a very bright fellow, but
I find it a tragedy that he did not attend college and get an advanced
degree in something along the lines of artificial
intelligence/neuro-computation.


I feel he has doomed himself to not being a "heavy hitter" like Robin
Hanson, James Hughes, Max More, or Nick Bostrom, due to his lacking
in this regard.  I realize he has his loyal pals and many friends within
transhumanism, but I suspect his success in the much larger world has
been greatly blunted due to his stubborn refusal to earn academic credentials.
And I have to chuckle at his notion that the Singularity would be right around
the corner and so why should he even bother? LOL


I realize he found a wealthy patron with Peter Thiel, and so money has
been given to the Singularity Institute to keep it afloat.  They have
had some nice looking conferences (I have never attended one), but I
am still not sure to what extent Thiel has donated money to SI or for
how long he will continue to do it.  I'd like to think that it's
enough money that Eliezer and Michael Anissimov can live comfortably.


I tried to join SL4 and was turned down!  And my Facebook request to
be his friend is still *pending.*  Yes, I should have never teased the
young "boy-genius" back a decade or so ago....  ; )  Oh, but Eliezer
told me he dislikes being called a genius.  I must not forget!  He is now
around 30, paunchy, and even beginning to lose his hair.  How the time flies....


I met him in person for the first time at the Extropy 5 conference
and I think we were mutually surprised at each other's mutual
"likeability."  I explained how I had really enjoyed his talk, but
wished I had a transcript of it, to better understand the material.
He immediately dug into his things and gave me a copy of his
presentation outline, which really touched me.


At Convergence he and Michael Anissimov had a great time
laughing their heads off together.  I remember a presentation
where he and Michael were all giggles and things were not
too productive.  But then Convergence had a very informal
format where anyone could sign up to give a talk to anyone
who wanted to show up.  I will never forget Bruce Klein and
his wife Susan lovingly giving me the finger!  : )


Anyway, like everyone, Eliezer has a good and a bad side.  Yes, he
seems to have a big ego and likes to be the center of attention, but
he strikes me as largely being very goodhearted and sincerely wanting
to improve the world.  But as I said before, without serious academic
credentials, he has somewhat muted himself and limited his own (in my
view) great potential.


I suspect his term "friendly AI" will be viewed by military funders of
AI, as something that needs to be replaced with "obedient AI."  If
they are even aware of his work...


John