Event Dime

What Separates an Optimizer From Something We Merely Describe as Optimizing?

When:

June 4, 2026 · 7:23 PM

Source:

A review of Where Is My Flying Car? by J. Storrs Hall — LessWrong

Reading through the AI Control posts, I notice that much if the discussion assumes a distinction between a system executing a policy and a system pursuing an outcome despite constraints. Is there a generally accepted threshold where LessWrong would say a system has crossed from “optimization as description” into optimization as agent”? Or is the distinction itself considered observer-relative? Discuss