Sure. One thing I might mention to someone with that utility function is that if humanity gets destroyed by an enhanced psychopath, that will probably happen right around the same time that enhanced scientists would be working to speed technological progress. So even someone with a relatively myopic utility function will in many cases favor caution.
I get the idea that FAI takes more intelligence than AGI, as AGI might be able to be brute-forced by reverse-engineering the brain or evolutionary approaches, whereas de novo AI is far harder, let alone AGI. This would mean that increasing intelligence would make the world safer. I don’t see why enhanced psychopaths are more likely than enhanced empaths.
If you’re the kind of person who gives up when faced with hard challenges, that’s fine; I guess we’re just different in that way.
No, I’m certainly not, however I am realistic and I do prioritise. I don’t think the risk from genetic enhancement is all that great, and indeed it may be a net positive.
Anyway, so I think that mandatory enhancement is not going to be popular. However, other ideas do seem more plausible:
One way to prepare might be differential technological development. In particular, maybe it’s possible to decrease the cost of gene editing/selection technologies while retarding advances in our knowledge of which genes contribute to intelligence.
So, this is a reasonable idea. Governments could prioritise research into stopping diseases above increasing intelligence, and indeed this is likely to be the case anyway, as this is less controversial. Increasing compassion or even docility could also be prioritised above increasing intelligence.
extend the benefits of designer babies to everyone for free regardless of their social class.
This is also a good idea. It seems inevitable that some of the rich will be early adopters before the technology is cheap enough to be made free to all. However, the cost of sequencing has been going down 5x per year, meaning that it is likely to quickly become widely available.
Overall, I would say the best strategy seems to be to take a more libertarian than authoritarian approach, but try to funnel money into researching the genetics of various antisocial personality disorders, try to make the technology free, and either don’t patient the genes or ensure that the patients don’t last that long.
Indeed, but I think it depends whether you used germline selection or germline modification. IIRC, in germline selection you create many embryos, sequence the genes, and select the embryo with the best genes.
Also, if the cost of sequencing goes down very fast, I would have thought this provides some evidence that the cost of modification would drop at a similar rate. Of course, there is already genetic modification of crops—do you know how that has changed in cost over time?
I get the idea that FAI takes more intelligence than AGI, as AGI might be able to be brute-forced by reverse-engineering the brain or evolutionary approaches, whereas de novo AI is far harder, let alone AGI. This would mean that increasing intelligence would make the world safer. I don’t see why enhanced psychopaths are more likely than enhanced empaths.
No, I’m certainly not, however I am realistic and I do prioritise. I don’t think the risk from genetic enhancement is all that great, and indeed it may be a net positive.
Anyway, so I think that mandatory enhancement is not going to be popular. However, other ideas do seem more plausible:
So, this is a reasonable idea. Governments could prioritise research into stopping diseases above increasing intelligence, and indeed this is likely to be the case anyway, as this is less controversial. Increasing compassion or even docility could also be prioritised above increasing intelligence.
This is also a good idea. It seems inevitable that some of the rich will be early adopters before the technology is cheap enough to be made free to all. However, the cost of sequencing has been going down 5x per year, meaning that it is likely to quickly become widely available.
Overall, I would say the best strategy seems to be to take a more libertarian than authoritarian approach, but try to funnel money into researching the genetics of various antisocial personality disorders, try to make the technology free, and either don’t patient the genes or ensure that the patients don’t last that long.
I think sequencing is what lets you measure genes, not modify them.
Indeed, but I think it depends whether you used germline selection or germline modification. IIRC, in germline selection you create many embryos, sequence the genes, and select the embryo with the best genes.
Also, if the cost of sequencing goes down very fast, I would have thought this provides some evidence that the cost of modification would drop at a similar rate. Of course, there is already genetic modification of crops—do you know how that has changed in cost over time?
Good point. I don’t know about crops.