I’m aware that — against my usual habits — I had a cup of coffee this morning. My mental state and thoughts are probably more agitated as a result. All the same, since I had some similar thoughts already yesterday, I feel comfortable pinning some of them down… It occurred to me that the difference… Continue reading Woke Signaling
Tag: selection
The Pain of Progress
During my teens, I believed that for the past three, four thousand years humans and their general cognitive abilities did not evolve much. As I am listening to Iain McGilchrist’s “The Master and His Emissary,” however, I am moved to reconsider. His exposé of how human thought writ large—most prominently described across the ages in… Continue reading The Pain of Progress
The Goodhart-Sinclair Trap
Have you heard of Goodhart’s Law? If not, I have come to believe it is a crucial piece in understanding why complex systems in which intelligent agents adapt their behavior can easily deteriorate over time: If agents are rewarded for optimizing a proxy, and they have limited resources to spend on improving their condition across… Continue reading The Goodhart-Sinclair Trap