why not deploy aligned AI that makes as much money as possible and then uses it for your interests? maybe the successionism means ppl choose not to? (Seems weak!)
For the non-rich, one way or another, they’ll quickly end up back in Malthusian competition with beings that are more productive, and have much more reproductive flexibility than them.
For the oligarchs / states, as long as human reproduction remained slow, they could easily use a small amount of their fortunes to keep humanity alive. But there are so many possible forms of successionism, that I expect at least one of them to be more appealing to a given oligarch / government than letting humans-as-they-are continue to consume substantial physical resources. E.g.:
Allow total reproductive freedom, which ends up Goodhearting whatever UBI / welfare system is in existence with “spam humans”, e.g. just-viable frozen embryos with uploaded / AI brains legally attached.
Some sort of “greatest hits of humanity” sim that replays human qualia involved in their greatest achievements, best days, etc., Or, support some new race of AGIs that are fine-tuned to simulate the very best of humanity (according to the state).
Force everyone to upload to save money, and also to police / abolish extreme suffering. Then selection effects turns the remaining humans into full-time activists / investors / whatever the government or oligarchs choose to reward. (This also might be what a good end looks like if done well enough.)
Thanks, these are interesting ideas though i’m not quite seeing the connection to my point.
I was imagining some fraction of ppl want to use all their current wealth to bring about a good long-run future. Strategy: they invest it on the market and eventually spend the proceeds on whatever is best. They don’t reproduce (as that would cost money, which they want to invest).
Maybe they upload themselves to live indefinitely if that’s needed to know how to best spend the money, but it will be cheap. Tbh, even staying alive indefinitely in biological form will likely be very cheap in absolute terms for someone with decent saving today.
Malthusian dynamics don’t seem to block this strategy
I agree Malthusian dynamics are important to think about post-AGI, and like your examples of ways that you could technically ‘keep humans alive’ more cheaply. Though i’m not sure if you fully appreciate how cheap it would be to keep all current humans around and limit reproduction to 8 babies per person. (Longer term you’ll need stricter limits.)
For the non-rich, one way or another, they’ll quickly end up back in Malthusian competition with beings that are more productive, and have much more reproductive flexibility than them.
For the oligarchs / states, as long as human reproduction remained slow, they could easily use a small amount of their fortunes to keep humanity alive. But there are so many possible forms of successionism, that I expect at least one of them to be more appealing to a given oligarch / government than letting humans-as-they-are continue to consume substantial physical resources. E.g.:
Allow total reproductive freedom, which ends up Goodhearting whatever UBI / welfare system is in existence with “spam humans”, e.g. just-viable frozen embryos with uploaded / AI brains legally attached.
Some sort of “greatest hits of humanity” sim that replays human qualia involved in their greatest achievements, best days, etc., Or, support some new race of AGIs that are fine-tuned to simulate the very best of humanity (according to the state).
Force everyone to upload to save money, and also to police / abolish extreme suffering. Then selection effects turns the remaining humans into full-time activists / investors / whatever the government or oligarchs choose to reward. (This also might be what a good end looks like if done well enough.)
Thanks, these are interesting ideas though i’m not quite seeing the connection to my point.
I was imagining some fraction of ppl want to use all their current wealth to bring about a good long-run future. Strategy: they invest it on the market and eventually spend the proceeds on whatever is best. They don’t reproduce (as that would cost money, which they want to invest).
Maybe they upload themselves to live indefinitely if that’s needed to know how to best spend the money, but it will be cheap. Tbh, even staying alive indefinitely in biological form will likely be very cheap in absolute terms for someone with decent saving today.
Malthusian dynamics don’t seem to block this strategy
I agree Malthusian dynamics are important to think about post-AGI, and like your examples of ways that you could technically ‘keep humans alive’ more cheaply. Though i’m not sure if you fully appreciate how cheap it would be to keep all current humans around and limit reproduction to 8 babies per person. (Longer term you’ll need stricter limits.)