The Filan Cabinet
An interview podcast where I, Daniel Filan, interview guests about topics I'm interested in, with the aim of clarifying how the guest understands that topic.
Episode 11 - Divia Eden and Ronny Fernandez on the orthogonality thesis
In this episode, Divia Eden and Ronny Fernandez talk about the (strong) orthogonality thesis - that arbitrarily smart intelligences can be paired with arbitrary goals, without additional complication beyond that of specifying the goal - with light prompting from me. Topics they touch on include:
- Why aren’t bees brilliant scientists?
- Can you efficiently make an AGI out of one part that predicts the future conditioned on some plans, and another that evaluates whether plans are good?
- If minds are made of smaller sub-agents with more primitive beliefs and desires, does that shape their terminal goals?
- Also, how would that even work?
- Which is cooler: rockets, or butterflies?
- What processes would make AIs terminally value integrity?
- Why do beavers build dams?
- Would these questions be easier to answer if we made octopuses really smart?
Arbital page for the orthogonality thesis
Video of a rescue beaver building a dam inside a human house