If you’ve ever been to a Burning Man event, you will see in a visceral way that people can find meaningful projects to do and enjoy doing them even when they’re totally unnecessary. Working together to do cool stuff and then show it off to other humans is fun. And those other humans appreciate it not just for what it is, but because someone worked to make it for them.
That won’t power an economy, as you say; but if we get to a post-singularity utopia where needs are provided for, people will have way more fun than ever.
You won’t be alone in wringing your hands! There are many people who won’t know what to do without being forced to work, or getting to try saving people who are suffering.
There will be a transition, but almost everyone will learn to enjoy not-having-to-work because the single most popular avocation will be “transition counselor/project buddy”.
It seems like you’re quite concerned with humans no longer controlling the future. Almost no human being has any meaningful control over the future. The few that think they do, in particular silicon valley types, are mostly wrong. People do have control of their impact on other people. They’ll continue to have that. They won’t have starving people to save, but they’ll get over it. They will have plenty of people to delight.
At this point you’re probably objecting: “But any project will be completed much better and faster by AGI than humans! Even volunteer projects will be pointless!”
Yes, except for people who appreciate the process and provenance of projects. Which we’ve already shown through our love of “artisanal” products that lots of us do, when we’ve got spare time and money to be picky and pay attention. Ridiculous as it is to care where things come from and pay extra time and money for elaborately hand-crafted stuff when there are people starving, we do. I even enjoy hearing about the process that made my soap, while being embarrassed to spend money on it.
So here’s what I predict: whole worlds with very strict rules on what the AGI can do for you, and what people must do themselves. There will be worlds or zones with different rules in place. Take your pick, and hop back and forth. We will marvel at devotion and craftspersonship as we never have. And we will thank our stars that we aren’t forced to do things we don’t want to do, let alone work until our bodies break, as most of humanity did right up until the singularity.
I fully agree that people should have a plan before creating AGI, and they largely don’t.
I suspect Dario Amodei is privately willing to become god-emperor should it seem appropriate. Note that talking about this in an interview would be counterproductive for nearly any goal he might have.
I’m pretty sure Sam Altman occasionally claps his hands with glee in private when imagines his own ascendency.
I doubt Shane Legg wants the job, but I for one would vote for him or Hassabis in a second; Demis would take the job, and I suspect do it quite well.
But none of them will get the chance. There are people with much more ambition for power and much more skill at getting it.
They are called politicians. And they already enjoy a democratic mandate to control the future.
We had best either work or pray for AGI to get into the hands of the right politicians.
If you’ve ever been to a Burning Man event, you will see in a visceral way that people can find meaningful projects to do and enjoy doing them even when they’re totally unnecessary. Working together to do cool stuff and then show it off to other humans is fun. And those other humans appreciate it not just for what it is, but because someone worked to make it for them.
That won’t power an economy, as you say; but if we get to a post-singularity utopia where needs are provided for, people will have way more fun than ever.
You won’t be alone in wringing your hands! There are many people who won’t know what to do without being forced to work, or getting to try saving people who are suffering.
There will be a transition, but almost everyone will learn to enjoy not-having-to-work because the single most popular avocation will be “transition counselor/project buddy”.
It seems like you’re quite concerned with humans no longer controlling the future. Almost no human being has any meaningful control over the future. The few that think they do, in particular silicon valley types, are mostly wrong. People do have control of their impact on other people. They’ll continue to have that. They won’t have starving people to save, but they’ll get over it. They will have plenty of people to delight.
At this point you’re probably objecting: “But any project will be completed much better and faster by AGI than humans! Even volunteer projects will be pointless!”
Yes, except for people who appreciate the process and provenance of projects. Which we’ve already shown through our love of “artisanal” products that lots of us do, when we’ve got spare time and money to be picky and pay attention. Ridiculous as it is to care where things come from and pay extra time and money for elaborately hand-crafted stuff when there are people starving, we do. I even enjoy hearing about the process that made my soap, while being embarrassed to spend money on it.
So here’s what I predict: whole worlds with very strict rules on what the AGI can do for you, and what people must do themselves. There will be worlds or zones with different rules in place. Take your pick, and hop back and forth. We will marvel at devotion and craftspersonship as we never have. And we will thank our stars that we aren’t forced to do things we don’t want to do, let alone work until our bodies break, as most of humanity did right up until the singularity.
I fully agree that people should have a plan before creating AGI, and they largely don’t.
I suspect Dario Amodei is privately willing to become god-emperor should it seem appropriate. Note that talking about this in an interview would be counterproductive for nearly any goal he might have.
I’m pretty sure Sam Altman occasionally claps his hands with glee in private when imagines his own ascendency.
I doubt Shane Legg wants the job, but I for one would vote for him or Hassabis in a second; Demis would take the job, and I suspect do it quite well.
But none of them will get the chance. There are people with much more ambition for power and much more skill at getting it.
They are called politicians. And they already enjoy a democratic mandate to control the future.
We had best either work or pray for AGI to get into the hands of the right politicians.