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FAQ - Textbook from the Future

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Trial and error works when failure is cheap. For the alignment of superintelligent AI we may only have one try. Only mathematical theory can provide assurance when there is no second try. The Textbook from the Future is a concept introduced by Yudkowsky. While the specific contents are obviously beyond our current knowledge, we can already guess at its overall gestalt; the table of contents. In other words, we are not certain of the answers contained in the textbook but we do know the questions it must answer. By committing the table of contents to paper we will have a skeleton that the community can flesh out. Importantly we can already start now! Even unfinished the textbook will enable scholars to draw from a coherent canon. The textbook is a coordination instrument. In some ways it is more accurate to think of it as the shared context of a research programme, and as a tool for establishing coherence in the field. It is the blueprint of the solution. Simultaneously it is also an on

FAQ - Textbook from the Future FAQ Why theory? Trial and error works when failure is cheap. For the alignment of superintelligent AI we may only have one try. Only mathematical theory can provide assurance when there is no second try. Isn't Alignment unsolved, how can you write a textbook on it? The Textbook from the Future is a concept introduced by Yudkowsky. “So, if we had the textbook from the future , like we have the textbook from 100 years in the future, which contains all the simple tricks that actually work robustly, then it would be much easier. But right now, we don't have that. We'

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