• @Architeuthis
    link
    English
    17
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Over time FHI faced increasing administrative headwinds within the Faculty of Philosophy (the Institute’s organizational home). Starting in 2020, the Faculty imposed a freeze on fundraising and hiring. In late 2023, the Faculty of Philosophy decided that the contracts of the remaining FHI staff would not be renewed. On 16 April 2024, the Institute was closed down.

    Sound like Oxford increasingly did not want anything to do with them.

    edit: Here’s a 94 page “final report” that seems more geared towards a rationalist audience.

    Wonder what this was about:

    Why we failed […] There also needs to be an understanding of how to communicate across organizational communities. When epistemic and communicative practices diverge too much, misunderstandings proliferate. Several times we made serious missteps in our communications with other parts of the university because we misunderstood how the message would be received. Finding friendly local translators and bridgebuilders is important.

    • @froztbyte
      link
      English
      188 months ago

      everything in that “why we failed” breakdown is a work of art each to itself. babbie’s first interaction with the real world each and every one of 'em

      • David GerardOPMA
        link
        English
        17
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        FHI was basically funded by one guy, James Martin - a computer millionaire. (His Wikipedia article misses the source of his wealth, but he owned a private island and the Oxford Martin School donation was the largest single donation in Oxford University’s history.) He died in 2013. Its days were numbered at that point. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/about/founder/

      • David GerardOPMA
        link
        English
        158 months ago

        remember that LessWrong used to be a joint SIAI (as was) and FHI project, with FHI supplying the academic cover

        • @froztbyte
          link
          English
          88 months ago

          I would guess it likely has a bit more cover/funding these days

          but I was wondering the other day whether the setup was in any way resilient…

          • David GerardOPMA
            link
            English
            108 months ago

            well now LW/MIRI runs on ethereum

            FHI didn’t seem to manage to tap into that tho

            • @froztbyte
              link
              English
              118 months ago

              not quite entirely what I had in mind, but it will be interesting to see what happens with that down the way as well

    • @Amoeba_Girl
      link
      English
      128 months ago

      Yeah it’s a bit of a relief to see everyone around him apparently knew he was a hack. Might have wanted to act on it sooner though!!

      • @froztbyte
        link
        English
        88 months ago

        my Perverse Incentives Rule Everything Around Me shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by…

    • @mountainriver
      link
      English
      68 months ago

      Why we failed: we tried explaining why everyone else was wrong and we were right, but somehow it didn’t work. We would have needed outsiders who could have translated our obviously correct explanations to the other outsiders, then it totally would have worked. But our for hire signs with “can you talk stupid?” was misunderstood and defaced. Clearly a more stealthy tactic was needed.