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Re24: Now, Anything Goes

Retraice^1

We're not going to talk; we're going to do.

Air date: Thursday, 20th Oct. 2022, 11:20 PM Eastern/US.

A crisis

Explicit, systematic application of method is exhausting. It is why we invented machines. It is why we will never be machines.

Now, anything goes. Because the machine approach to what's GOOT via world models is not human. At least, it's not human to talk about it, at length, to an audience (as opposed to just doing it, which is necessary).

World Model 1

Here's a first world model.

1. NINFA (nature is not f-ing around): GNR (genetics, nanotech, robotics), GCR (global catastrophic risks), and B&R (blue and red politics) all have real deadlines^2 ; 2. There are three kinds of intelligence (natural, artificial, strategic)^3 ; 3. Sources require tests^4 , and then integration (as in, integration of specialist knowledge into generalist models)^5 ; 4. Computer control^6 is what's GOOT.

Trying to apply this systematically to What's GOOT for purposes of podcast content did not feel right. Systematic method applied explicitly is exhausting.

Against method

Paul Feyerabend's book offered another way, which felt more right (see below).

Don't talk. Do.

But we're not going to talk--we're going to do. Doug Edwards on working at the early Google:

"In reality, if you weren't an engineer, your first directive was to avoid impeding the progress of those who were. I'm not a technical guy. No one at Google ever said, `Hey, let's ask Doug!' when the flux capacitor hiccupped. But you couldn't work at Google without learning something new every day, even if you weren't trying to. Most engineers opened up about their work when I sat next to them at lunch, and generally they didn't mind using little baby-English words to explain things to me. Given the pressure, though, the engineers were biased toward being productive rather than talking about their productivity. It was a `Don't talk. Do.' kind of culture, which made communication about our technical achievements erratic."^7 (emphases added)

Chimps and bonobos and inquiry

Feyerabend on how to avoid impeding (inhibiting) scientific inquiry:

"Science is an essentially anarchic enterprise.... The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes."^8 (emphasis added)

This makes more sense. When we do enquiry, pursuing `what's GOOT', we do it like primates, not machines.

E.O. Wilson on science and the humanities, a human-inquiry model:

"The two great branches of learning, science and the humanities, are complementary in our pursuit of creativity. They share the same roots of innovative endeavor. The realm of science is everything possible in the universe; the realm of the humanities is everything conceivable to the human mind."^9

What's GOOT? The possible (science) and the conceivable (humanities), as pursued by primates.

Changing tacks

Everything we've said so far is still true and valid. But going forward, we'll try the more instinctive approach, and leave the `machine MO' for off-mic. Maybe we'll start by just reading the news.

For this to be worth your time, you'll have to trust us.

_

References

Edwards, D. (2011). I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN: 978-0547416991. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0547416991 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0547416991 https://lccn.loc.gov/2010052588

Feyerabend, P. (1975). Against Method. Verso, 3rd ed. ISBN: 978-0860916468. First ed. 1975; this third ed. 1993. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780860916468 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780860916468 https://lccn.loc.gov/76352961

Retraice (2020/09/07). Re1: Three Kinds of Intelligence. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re1 Retrieved 22nd Sep. 2020.

Retraice (2022/03/02). Re16: Trust is a Response. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re16 Retrieved 6th Mar. 2022.

Retraice (2022/10/10). Re19: Nature Is Not F-ing Around. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re19 Retrieved 12th Oct. 2022.

Retraice (2022/10/16a). Re20: The Deadline Problem. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re20 Retrieved 17th Oct. 2022.

Retraice (2022/10/16b). Re21: Time's Up. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re21 Retrieved 18th Oct. 2022.

Retraice (2022/10/19a). Re22: Computer Control. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re22 Retrieved 19th Oct. 2022.

Retraice (2022/10/19b). Re23: You Need a World Model. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re23 Retrieved 20th Oct. 2022.

Wilson, E. O. (2017). The Origins of Creativity. W. W. Norton, Kindle ed. ISBN: 978-1631493195. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9781631493195 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9781631493195 https://lccn.loc.gov/2017017326

Footnotes

^1 https://www.retraice.com/retraice

^2 Retraice (2022/10/10); Retraice (2022/10/16a); Retraice (2022/10/16b).

^3 Retraice (2020/09/07).

^4 Retraice (2022/03/02)

^5 Retraice (2022/10/19b).

^6 Retraice (2022/10/19a).

^7 Edwards (2011) p. xv.

^8 Feyerabend (1975) pp. 9, 14.

^9 Wilson (2017) p. 1.