I resonate a lot with Beren’s perspective. Definitely ‘AI polytheism’ (and this is a great term!) is a neglected perspective.
And definitely there are some refinements needed to a naive ‘values are hyper specific’ perspective: unquestionably there are evopsych+game theory selection stories for many of our drives, ‘biases’, heuristics, etc., as well as for our socially-developed institutions and norms. They are even plausibly (though it’s unclear) to varying degrees ‘convergent’ in some region.
I worry it’s a sleight of hand, though, to call these ‘human values’ in the same sense as is meant by those concerned about erosion/destruction of such human values (whether acutely or gradually).
Importantly, of course I can imagine a para economy+society of machines exhibiting some behavioural analogues of trust, reputation, coalitions, affection, play. But I don’t see any good reason to be confident that those coalitions, that affection, the capacity to engage in trust etc. would be inclusive of humans, or even of machines with relevant subjective experience to appreciate it. Corporations are a good example: it’s great that they have identity, reputation, capacity to enter into agreements and so on, because it enables coordination. But I absolutely don’t care about the corporation for its own sake, and a world of corps only would be a dead one.
I resonate a lot with Beren’s perspective. Definitely ‘AI polytheism’ (and this is a great term!) is a neglected perspective.
And definitely there are some refinements needed to a naive ‘values are hyper specific’ perspective: unquestionably there are evopsych+game theory selection stories for many of our drives, ‘biases’, heuristics, etc., as well as for our socially-developed institutions and norms. They are even plausibly (though it’s unclear) to varying degrees ‘convergent’ in some region.
I worry it’s a sleight of hand, though, to call these ‘human values’ in the same sense as is meant by those concerned about erosion/destruction of such human values (whether acutely or gradually).
Importantly, of course I can imagine a para economy+society of machines exhibiting some behavioural analogues of trust, reputation, coalitions, affection, play. But I don’t see any good reason to be confident that those coalitions, that affection, the capacity to engage in trust etc. would be inclusive of humans, or even of machines with relevant subjective experience to appreciate it. Corporations are a good example: it’s great that they have identity, reputation, capacity to enter into agreements and so on, because it enables coordination. But I absolutely don’t care about the corporation for its own sake, and a world of corps only would be a dead one.