C. Thi Nguyen: Values, Legibility, and Gamification

C. Thi Nguyen: Values, Legibility, and Gamification

Author: Daniel Bashir June 13, 2024 Duration: 1:30:13

Episode 127

I spoke with Christopher Thi Nguyen about:

* How we lose control of our values

* The tradeoffs of legibility, aggregation, and simplification

* Gamification and its risks

Enjoy—and let me know what you think!

C. Thi Nguyen as of July 2020 is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. His research focuses on how social structures and technology can shape our rationality and our agency. He has published on trust, expertise, group agency, community art, cultural appropriation, aesthetic value, echo chambers, moral outrage porn, and games. He received his PhD from UCLA. Once, he was a food writer for the Los Angeles Times.

I spend a lot of time on this podcast—if you like my work, you can support me on Patreon :)

Reach me at editor@thegradient.pub for feedback, ideas, guest suggestions.

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Outline:

* (00:00) Intro

* (01:10) The ubiquity of James C. Scott

* (06:03) Legibility and measurement

* (12:50) Value capture, classes and measurement

* (17:30) Political value choice in ML

* (23:30) Why value collapse happens

* (33:00) Blackburn, “Hume and Thick Connexions” — projectivism and legibility

* (36:20) Heuristics and decision-making

* (40:08) Institutional classification systems

* (46:55) Back to Hume

* (48:27) Epistemic arms races, stepping outside our conceptual architectures

* (56:40) The “what to do” question

* (1:04:00) Gamification, aesthetic engagement

* (1:14:51) Echo chambers and defining utility

* (1:22:10) Progress, AGI millenarianism

* (disclaimer: I don’t know what’s going to happen with the world, either.)

* (1:26:04) Parting visions

* (1:30:02) Outro

Links:

* Chrisopher’s Twitter and homepage

* Games: Agency as Art

* Papers referenced

* Transparency is Surveillance

* Games and the art of agency

* Autonomy and Aesthetic Engagement

* Art as a Shelter from Science

* Value Capture

* Hostile Epistemology

* Hume and Thick Connexions (Simon Blackburn)



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Hosted by Daniel Bashir, The Gradient: Perspectives on AI moves beyond surface-level headlines to explore the intricate machinery and human ideas shaping artificial intelligence. Each episode is built on a foundation of deep research, leading to conversations that are both technically substantive and broadly accessible. You'll hear from researchers, engineers, and philosophers who are actively building and critiquing our technological future, discussing not just how AI systems work, but the larger implications of their integration into society. This isn't about speculative hype; it's a grounded examination of real progress, persistent challenges, and ethical considerations from those on the front lines. The discussions peel back layers on topics like model architecture, policy, and the fundamental science behind the algorithms becoming part of our daily lives. For anyone curious about the substance behind the buzz-whether you have a technical background or are simply keen to understand a defining technology of our age-this podcast offers a crucial and thoughtful resource. Tune in for a consistently detailed and nuanced take that treats artificial intelligence with the complexity it deserves.
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