Humanity is about to enter an even steeper hockey stick growth curve. Progressing along the Kardashev scale feels all but inevitable. We will live to see Longevity Escape Velocity. I'm fucking pumped and feel thrilled and excited and proud of our species.
Sure, there will be growing pains, friction, etc. Who cares? There always is with world-changing tech. Always.
Yeah, with this mentality, we wouldn't have electricity today. You will never make transition to new technology painless, no matter what you do. (See: https://pessimistsarchive.org)
What you are likely doing, though, is making many more future humans pay a cost in suffering. Every day we delay longevity escape velocity is another 150k people dead.
There was a time when in the name of progress people were killed for whatever resources they possessed, others were enslaved etc. and I was under the impression that the measure of our civilization is that we actually DID care and just how much. It seems to me that you are very eager to put up altars of sacrifice without even thinking that the problems you probably have in mind are perfectly solvable without them.
Nah, it's death. People objectively are doing better than ever despite wealth inequality. By all metrics - poverty, quality of life, homelessness, wealth, purchasing power.
I'd rather just... not die. Not unless I want to. Same for my loved ones. That's far more important than "wealth inequality."
You don't mind living in a country with a population of billions [sic], piled on top of one another? You don't mind living a country ruled by gerontocracy and probably autocracy, because that's what you'll eventually get without death to flush them out.
"You/your loved ones should die because Elon would die too" is a terrible argument. It's not great, but it's not worth dying over. New rich bad people would take his place anyways.
"You should die because cities will get crowded" is a less terrible argument but still a bad one. We have room for at least double our population on this planet, couples choosing longevity can be required to have <=1 children until there is room for more, we will eventually colonize other planets, etc.
All this is implying that consciousness will continue to take up a meaningful amount of physical space. Not dying in the long term implies gradual replacement and transfer to a virtual medium at some point.
> People objectively are doing better than ever despite wealth inequality. By all metrics - poverty, quality of life, homelessness, wealth, purchasing power.
If you take this as an axiom, it will always be true ;).
Longevity Escape Velocity? Even if you had orders of magnitude more people working on medical research, it's not a given that prolonging life indefinitely is even possible.
Of course it's a given unless you want to invoke supernatural causes the human brain is a collection of cells with electro-chemical connections that if fully reconstructed either physically or virtually would necessarily need to represent the original person's brain. Therefore with sufficient intelligence it would be possible to engineer technology that would be able to do that reconstruction without even having to go to the atomic level, which we also have a near full understanding of already.
I agree, save invoking supernatural causes, the human brain is a collection of cells with electro-chemical connections that if fully reconstructed either physically or virtually would necessarily need to represent the original person's brain. Therefore with sufficient intelligence it would be possible to engineer technology that would be able to do that reconstruction without even having to go to the atomic level, which we also have a near full understanding of already.
My job should be secure for a while, but why would an average person give a damn about humanity when they might lose their jobs and comfort levels? If I had kids, I would absolutely hate this uncertainty as well.
“Oh well, I guess I can’t give the opportunities to my kid that I wanted, but at least humanity is growing rapidly!”
Again, sure, but it doesn’t matter to an average person. That’s too much focus on the hypothetical future. People care about the current times. In the short term it will suck for a good chunk of people, and whether the sacrifice is worth it will depend on who you are.
People aren’t really on uproar yet, because implementations haven’t affected the job market of the masses. Afterwards? Tume will show.
Yes, people tend to focus on current times. It's an incredibly shortsighted mentality that selfishly puts oneself over tens of billions of future lives being improved. https://pessimistsarchive.org
Do you have any dependents, like parents or kids, by any chance? Imagine not being able to provide for them. Think how’d you feel in such circumstances.
Like in general I totally agree with you, but I also understand why a person would care about their loved ones and themselves first.
We've almost wiped ourselves out in a nuclear war in the 70ies. If that would have happened, would it have been worth it? Probably not.
Beyond immediate increase in inequality, which I agree could be worth it in the long run if this was the only problem, we're playing a dangerous game.
The smartest and most capable species on the planet that dominates it for exactly this reason, is creating something even smarter and more capable than itself in the hope it'd help make its life easier.
>But while the “making AGI” part of the mission seems well on track, it feels like I (and others) have gradually realized how much harder it is to contribute in a robustly positive way to the “succeeding” part of the mission, especially when it comes to preventing existential risks to humanity.
Almost every single one of the people OpenAI had hired to work on AI safety have left the firm with similar messages. Perhaps you should at least consider the thinking of experts?
You and I will likely not live to see much of anything past AGI.
I would rather follow in the steps of uncle Ted than let AI turn me in a homeless person. It’s no consolation that my tent will have a nice view of a lunar colony
Sure, there will be growing pains, friction, etc. Who cares? There always is with world-changing tech. Always.