I don’t remeber who said it, but building AI isn’t just about power dynamics or a bit of efficiency.
It’s about whether humanity should keep doing things.
Civilization (feels like it?) stagnated and degraded for the last decades (the main technological upgrade being the cause of social degradation).
We haven’t solved cancer, can’t regrow limbs, people are unhealthy, commuting to work is unpleasant and work weeks are long. The list can go on.
Humans make tools do let them do better and more work. Humans even set up full automation of certain things. Now humans are looking to fully automate humans, perhaps because we don’t believe in the human race. (I think EY and doomers generally are the same as the accelerationists, neither has faith in humanity).
What could humans make that would restore faith- faith that we could compete with AGIs, faith that we can get out of stagnation without replacing humans, faith that we can make the world of humans a better one?
A tech advance, an organizational efficiency advance, quality of life, something else?
I admit I don’t have much faith in most of humanity.
Only a few people are actively bad. But also only a few are actively good. Most people are just fucking passive. On some level they want the world to be a nice place, but if that requires them moving a finger, then… sorry, it’s just not going to happen.
We have educational system that can teach you things that the ancient philosophers would sacrifice an arm and a leg for. And I don’t mean just the school system, but also the internet: Wikipedia, Khan Academy, Library Genesis. If you want to learn something, it’s there, often for free. Most people just don’t care.
Even the universities and research institutions are mostly full of people just going through the motions, without any genuine curiosity. It may not seem that way if you are in an exceptionally good school or research org. But most people go to the university just to get the diploma, to hopefully get them a better job; they don’t care about the knowledge. Most submitted scientific papers are shit that should be thrown away.
I suspect we only get progress because the human population is so huge that even a fraction of a fraction is enough in absolute numbers to keep inventing new things, while the rest of humanity keeps sleepwalking. A planet with one billion sane people would be… a science fiction story, compared to what we have now.
Of course, replacing humans with machines that will murder us and then proceed to slowly convert the entire universe to paperclips is not an answer.
What could humans make that would restore faith
I am tempted to say “wake up”, except that most people would interpret that as doing some crazy thing, such as joining some religious group, reading conspiracy theories, etc. So I will say “wake up in a sane way”. That means:
Start paying attention to the universe around you. The living things are made of cells, everything is made of atoms. Pick up a textbook. Watch an educational video. Share with friends.
Notice the things that are missing around you, and do something about that. (It will be more fun if you do that together with your friends.) People are lonely—talk to them. The park is dirty—pick up the trash.
Notice the things that are dysfunctional and start talking about that. Houses are expensive—maybe we should build more houses. The food in shops is unhealthy—maybe we should learn to cook. Politicians are crazy—maybe we should write “a sane centrist manifesto”, a list of things that most sane people can agree on, publish it everywhere, and mercilessly call out every crazy idea that goes against it.
Simply, act as if this world is real, and as if your actions can actually matter (even if just on a small scale). You might not change the world, but you can definitely bring some change to your neighborhood.
Today, there are people like that. But they are like 1% of the population, and it’s too much work for them to fix everything (especially while some people are actively trying to make it worse), and they are tired. Some help would be really appreciated.
If that is not an option, then at least we need to figure out some way for the sane people to get together, start their own city / country / planet, and… on my darker days, I would say “let the rest of humanity rot in their filth”… but actually I am a nice person, it’s just that when everyone is drowning, you need to save yourself first, catch some breath, and maybe then return to help others. But you need to keep the separation on some symbolic level; for example if most scientific journals contain unreproducible results, do not post in the same journals, but start a new one with different criteria for accepting papers. If the schools suck, don’t just become a teacher, but at least start a new school. If you are sane, keep yourself separated from the insane; help them if you can, but do it from a position where they can’t drag you down or take credit for your work or twist your ideas. (Basically, if you do something fundamentally different from others, be legible about it, so that other sane people see whom to join.)
And to be honest, I don’t think that even the rationality community passes this bar, although it is one of the few groups that are at least trying. (But we still get the murderous Zizians, demon-exorcising Leverage, etc.)
I don’t remeber who said it, but building AI isn’t just about power dynamics or a bit of efficiency.
It’s about whether humanity should keep doing things.
Civilization (feels like it?) stagnated and degraded for the last decades (the main technological upgrade being the cause of social degradation).
We haven’t solved cancer, can’t regrow limbs, people are unhealthy, commuting to work is unpleasant and work weeks are long. The list can go on.
Humans make tools do let them do better and more work. Humans even set up full automation of certain things. Now humans are looking to fully automate humans, perhaps because we don’t believe in the human race. (I think EY and doomers generally are the same as the accelerationists, neither has faith in humanity).
What could humans make that would restore faith- faith that we could compete with AGIs, faith that we can get out of stagnation without replacing humans, faith that we can make the world of humans a better one?
A tech advance, an organizational efficiency advance, quality of life, something else?
I admit I don’t have much faith in most of humanity.
Only a few people are actively bad. But also only a few are actively good. Most people are just fucking passive. On some level they want the world to be a nice place, but if that requires them moving a finger, then… sorry, it’s just not going to happen.
We have educational system that can teach you things that the ancient philosophers would sacrifice an arm and a leg for. And I don’t mean just the school system, but also the internet: Wikipedia, Khan Academy, Library Genesis. If you want to learn something, it’s there, often for free. Most people just don’t care.
Even the universities and research institutions are mostly full of people just going through the motions, without any genuine curiosity. It may not seem that way if you are in an exceptionally good school or research org. But most people go to the university just to get the diploma, to hopefully get them a better job; they don’t care about the knowledge. Most submitted scientific papers are shit that should be thrown away.
I suspect we only get progress because the human population is so huge that even a fraction of a fraction is enough in absolute numbers to keep inventing new things, while the rest of humanity keeps sleepwalking. A planet with one billion sane people would be… a science fiction story, compared to what we have now.
Of course, replacing humans with machines that will murder us and then proceed to slowly convert the entire universe to paperclips is not an answer.
I am tempted to say “wake up”, except that most people would interpret that as doing some crazy thing, such as joining some religious group, reading conspiracy theories, etc. So I will say “wake up in a sane way”. That means:
Start paying attention to the universe around you. The living things are made of cells, everything is made of atoms. Pick up a textbook. Watch an educational video. Share with friends.
Notice the things that are missing around you, and do something about that. (It will be more fun if you do that together with your friends.) People are lonely—talk to them. The park is dirty—pick up the trash.
Notice the things that are dysfunctional and start talking about that. Houses are expensive—maybe we should build more houses. The food in shops is unhealthy—maybe we should learn to cook. Politicians are crazy—maybe we should write “a sane centrist manifesto”, a list of things that most sane people can agree on, publish it everywhere, and mercilessly call out every crazy idea that goes against it.
Simply, act as if this world is real, and as if your actions can actually matter (even if just on a small scale). You might not change the world, but you can definitely bring some change to your neighborhood.
Today, there are people like that. But they are like 1% of the population, and it’s too much work for them to fix everything (especially while some people are actively trying to make it worse), and they are tired. Some help would be really appreciated.
If that is not an option, then at least we need to figure out some way for the sane people to get together, start their own city / country / planet, and… on my darker days, I would say “let the rest of humanity rot in their filth”… but actually I am a nice person, it’s just that when everyone is drowning, you need to save yourself first, catch some breath, and maybe then return to help others. But you need to keep the separation on some symbolic level; for example if most scientific journals contain unreproducible results, do not post in the same journals, but start a new one with different criteria for accepting papers. If the schools suck, don’t just become a teacher, but at least start a new school. If you are sane, keep yourself separated from the insane; help them if you can, but do it from a position where they can’t drag you down or take credit for your work or twist your ideas. (Basically, if you do something fundamentally different from others, be legible about it, so that other sane people see whom to join.)
And to be honest, I don’t think that even the rationality community passes this bar, although it is one of the few groups that are at least trying. (But we still get the murderous Zizians, demon-exorcising Leverage, etc.)