Previous: Meet the Rationalists
One fateful day, in 2016, a young software engineer walks into the rarified Rationalist michiigoss: Mz. Ziz LaSota.
Mz. Ziz has traveled all the way from Alaska to San Francisco to reach this michiigoss. Why has she bothered? Well, since graduating college (& interning at, ahem, NASA), Ziz has fallen upon the writings of a man named Eliezer Yudkowsky.
Eliezer is an extreme AI doomer: it is he who has spurred the Rationalists to believe that demonic AI will almost certainly devastate humanity w/in their lifetimes, unless its “alignment problem” can be solved. To prevent demonic AI, he has advocated for extreme measures, including military action to stop AI development.
In recent years, Eliezer has become increasingly fatalistic, arguing that demonic AI is nearly inevitable, & that humanity’s odds of survival are slim. Also in recent years, it should be said that Eliezer has faced increasing skepticism from mainstream AI researchers, as his doom & gloom predictions have, so far as we can tell, failed to materialize.
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Eliezer’s interpretations of decision theory & AI alignment are highly unusual— yet are often framed (by him) as the only correct approach. These interpretations have been dismissed by many mainstream AI experts— which has led to the dismissal of mainstream AI experts by many Rationalists.
His arguments are often presented as definitive, & many Rationalists see him as *the* authority on not just AI safety, but on “rationality” & “epistemology” (epistemics = study of knowledge; how we know things) writ large. Eliezer has tended to position himself as one of the few ppl who truly understands the existential threats we face, & has tended to dismiss opposing viewpoints as naïve or delusional.
At present, the intellectual world of the Rationalists is quite insular; they tend mostly to cite each other, & ofc to prioritize the writings of Eliezer.
His writings are treated as foundational texts by the Rationalists; they are adopted, by some, as a quasi-religious intellectual framework.*
*It is not w/out a twinkle in our eye that we report: many Rationalists define themselves as hard-core atheists. They have nonetheless rediscovered the allure of apocalyptic faith.
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Speaking of this faith’s allure, it is Eliezer who has dangled visions of angelic AI in front of the Rationalists’ eyes. Many would hold that such visions border on science fiction— yet, w/in Rationalist philosophical & technological discussions, they are taken quite seriously.
In short, Eliezer— who, incidentally, is largely self-taught; he has only an 8th grade education*— is both a founding father of Rationalists, & their central influencer.
*To his credit, Eliezer claims that his 8th-grade SAT score (1410) was that year’s “highest in the nation”; we can neither confirm nor deny.
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Young Mz. Ziz has read* the apocalyptic writings of Eliezer, & she has become a true believer. She has become convinced that joining the fight against demonic AI is the best way that she can “save the world”— & Ziz really, really cares abt “saving the world”.
*Incidentally, Ziz’s intro to Eliezer had come in her childhood, when she— an avid fantasy fan— read “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality”— Eliezer’s popular Rationalism X Harry Potter fan fiction-turned-book. We mention this not bc it’s critical to our saga, but bc it’s an absurd book, & we think you may have fun reading its summary.
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Ziz fully believes in the Rationalist mission— but w/in a year of her big move to CA, she starts to have doubts abt the Rationalists *themselves*.
There were doubtless many factors behind the rift that is to grow b/w Ziz & the Bay Area Rationalists. Let’s start w/ one important factor: the fact that Ziz is trans.
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Next: Clowns Upon Clowns