We may be talking past each other to some extent since you are talking about where to give now and I am mostly talking about where to look for opportunities later.
That sounds pretty plausible. But the “what are you actually going to do to make these broad things happen?” question is an important one. These things—systematically making the population smarter, more coordinated, more benevolent, etc. -- are hella hard to pull off.
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Now consider the things I said in this talk would help people meet future challenges better: improved coordination between key actors, improved information access, improved motives, and improved individual capabilities (higher intelligence and technology).
I agree that these things will generally make the future go better, but they might be too broad.
Take the example of “higher intelligence”. This raises the question—intelligence in what? Better English literature skills certainly won’t help us deal with x-risks. It seems quite plausible that a particular x-risk we’re dealing with will require a pretty particular set of skills, to which most intelligence amplification will not have been helpful. …Perhaps you could argue that we need a diversified portfolio of education because we can’t know what x-risk we’ll be hit with, though.
That sounds pretty plausible. But the “what are you actually going to do to make these broad things happen?” question is an important one. These things—systematically making the population smarter, more coordinated, more benevolent, etc. -- are hella hard to pull off.
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I agree that these things will generally make the future go better, but they might be too broad.
Take the example of “higher intelligence”. This raises the question—intelligence in what? Better English literature skills certainly won’t help us deal with x-risks. It seems quite plausible that a particular x-risk we’re dealing with will require a pretty particular set of skills, to which most intelligence amplification will not have been helpful. …Perhaps you could argue that we need a diversified portfolio of education because we can’t know what x-risk we’ll be hit with, though.