Doom Debates David Deutschian vs. Eliezer Yudkowskian Debate: Will AGI Cooperate With Humanity? — With Brett Hall
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Oct 10, 2025 Brett Hall, an educator and podcaster deeply rooted in David Deutsch's optimistic philosophy, engages in a lively debate on AI and humanity's future. They tackle key topics like the orthogonality thesis, distinguishing human creativity from AI outputs, and the dangers of slowing scientific progress. Brett argues that predictions about AI may be misguided, emphasizing problem-solving and the unique human capacity for explanatory knowledge. Their contrasting views on AI risks and the nature of intelligence lead to a captivating clash of worldviews.
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Optimism Rooted In Problem-Solving
- Brett Hall argues we should be excited about the future because humans are problem-solvers who create explanatory knowledge.
- He claims the future is inherently unpredictable so optimism about progress is rational and practical.
Avoid Progress-Slowing Policies
- Avoid policy that slows scientific progress, because slowing progress risks leaving humanity unable to solve unknown future problems.
- Prioritize responsible advancement and openness rather than heavy censorship that could stifle knowledge creation.
Why P(Doom) Is Unknowable
- Brett rejects assigning a precise P(doom) because human knowledge creation makes long-term futures unpredictable.
- He argues Bayes-style probabilities fail when you lack a determinate denominator for novel knowledge-driven futures.
