The thing that worries me in this scenario is that Superpower A has the ability to expand to other star systems while Superpower B (and presumably everyone else on Earth) has very little say about it.
I don’t think Superpower B would be able to convincingly argue that they are willing to initiate their own destruction through MAD if they’re not given access to half of the galaxy or if their preferences for large scale space expansion are not taken into account. Also, assuming the leaders of superpower B don’t want to be deposed, they wouldn’t make such a threat anyway because it wouldn’t be in the interest of the people that the leaders of Superpower B represent.
I think interstellar travel will be a really pivotal point with a huge risk of locking in bad values for the long-term future. There is a selection bias: the actor most likely to gain dominance in space is not the actor most likely to have good values, so space power grabs risks locking in bad values for the long-term future.
The thing that worries me in this scenario is that Superpower A has the ability to expand to other star systems while Superpower B (and presumably everyone else on Earth) has very little say about it.
I don’t think Superpower B would be able to convincingly argue that they are willing to initiate their own destruction through MAD if they’re not given access to half of the galaxy or if their preferences for large scale space expansion are not taken into account. Also, assuming the leaders of superpower B don’t want to be deposed, they wouldn’t make such a threat anyway because it wouldn’t be in the interest of the people that the leaders of Superpower B represent.
I think interstellar travel will be a really pivotal point with a huge risk of locking in bad values for the long-term future. There is a selection bias: the actor most likely to gain dominance in space is not the actor most likely to have good values, so space power grabs risks locking in bad values for the long-term future.