From: Matt Mahoney (matmahoney@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Mar 01 2009 - 15:27:45 MST
--- On Sun, 3/1/09, Johnicholas Hines <johnicholas.hines@gmail.com> wrote:
> A sentence like "You should do X because Y." might be understood as "I
> am transmitting a certificate (Y) that contains evidence that the
> action (X) will lead to higher values of your utility function, as I
> understand it."
The question of "should" vs. "will" often arises when the utility is unclear, for example:
1. We should build AI because it will lead to the end of death, disease, and suffering.
2. We should not build AI because it will lead to human extinction.
And the two parties don't realize that they are in perfect agreement about the consequences of AI. Such disagreements could be avoided by saying "if we build AI, then we will copy our minds into machines and abandon our carbon based bodies" without implying whether this is good or bad. *That* question depends on who you ask.
-- Matt Mahoney, matmahoney@yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:01:04 MDT