Rule of law is mostly response to incomplete trust in government and a little bit because predictability is desirable. Because we can’t trust that the government will always act properly, we want to constrain its actions with rules and limit abusable discretion. And because we’re concerned that exceptions to rules will privilege favored groups, we want the rules to be the same for everyone. Same goes for due process.
But that’s not really a first-best solution. Adherence to fixed rules inevitably misfires in some concrete cases where we all agree that it would be better to make exceptions. So, if you have a benevolent and super-intelligent overlord, why constrain its actions based on rules? Why not let it just always do what is best? A super-intelligence can also solve the predictability problem by just directly answering your question about whether you can do X without getting into trouble (whereas that’s administratively infeasible for existing governments).
As to protected rights, I guess it depends on whether you think these are goods in themselves or means to an end. A lot of existing rights probably don’t survive on the basis of being inherently good. For example, most Americans seem to agree that things like hate speech or misinformation are not inherently good but ought to be protected as free speech in order to avoid a slippery slope. But, with a benevolent super-intelligence, we needn’t worry about that because it can just draw the line (and make the needed exceptions).
I think rule of law and protected rights probably still make sense, if not democracy per se.
Rule of law is mostly response to incomplete trust in government and a little bit because predictability is desirable. Because we can’t trust that the government will always act properly, we want to constrain its actions with rules and limit abusable discretion. And because we’re concerned that exceptions to rules will privilege favored groups, we want the rules to be the same for everyone. Same goes for due process.
But that’s not really a first-best solution. Adherence to fixed rules inevitably misfires in some concrete cases where we all agree that it would be better to make exceptions. So, if you have a benevolent and super-intelligent overlord, why constrain its actions based on rules? Why not let it just always do what is best? A super-intelligence can also solve the predictability problem by just directly answering your question about whether you can do X without getting into trouble (whereas that’s administratively infeasible for existing governments).
As to protected rights, I guess it depends on whether you think these are goods in themselves or means to an end. A lot of existing rights probably don’t survive on the basis of being inherently good. For example, most Americans seem to agree that things like hate speech or misinformation are not inherently good but ought to be protected as free speech in order to avoid a slippery slope. But, with a benevolent super-intelligence, we needn’t worry about that because it can just draw the line (and make the needed exceptions).