Your own examples of technologies that aren’t currently pursued but have huge upsides are a strong case against this proposition. These lines of research have some risks, but if there was sufficient funding and coordination, they could be tremendously valuable. Yet the status quo is to simply ban them without investing much at all in building a safe infrastructure to pursue them.
If you should succeed in achieving the political will needed to “slow down tech,” it will come from idiots, fundamentalists, people with useless jobs, etc. It will not be a coalition pushing to make aligned, democratic, open AI possible. It will be a coalition dedicated to preserving the status quo and rent-seeking. Perhaps you believe, SBF-style, that “means justify the ends,” and this dogmatic coalition will still serve you well. Perhaps it does, and it reduces existential risk. (This is a big assumption.) Even so, most humans don’t care about existential risk much. Humans value others by proximity to themselves, temporally and otherwise. This is asking everyone alive, their children, their grandchildren, etc. to suffer so that “existential risk” integrated over an infinite time interval is reduced. This is not something most people want, and it’s the reason you will only find allies in the unproductive rent-seekers and idiots.
I completely agree and this seems good? I very much want to ally with unproductive rent-seekers and idiots to reduce existential risk. Thanks a lot, unproductive rent-seekers and idiots! (though I most certainly shouldn’t call them that to ally with them). I don’t understand how this is in any way a strong case against the proposition.
Your own examples of technologies that aren’t currently pursued but have huge upsides are a strong case against this proposition. These lines of research have some risks, but if there was sufficient funding and coordination, they could be tremendously valuable. Yet the status quo is to simply ban them without investing much at all in building a safe infrastructure to pursue them.
If you should succeed in achieving the political will needed to “slow down tech,” it will come from idiots, fundamentalists, people with useless jobs, etc. It will not be a coalition pushing to make aligned, democratic, open AI possible. It will be a coalition dedicated to preserving the status quo and rent-seeking. Perhaps you believe, SBF-style, that “means justify the ends,” and this dogmatic coalition will still serve you well. Perhaps it does, and it reduces existential risk. (This is a big assumption.) Even so, most humans don’t care about existential risk much. Humans value others by proximity to themselves, temporally and otherwise. This is asking everyone alive, their children, their grandchildren, etc. to suffer so that “existential risk” integrated over an infinite time interval is reduced. This is not something most people want, and it’s the reason you will only find allies in the unproductive rent-seekers and idiots.
I completely agree and this seems good? I very much want to ally with unproductive rent-seekers and idiots to reduce existential risk. Thanks a lot, unproductive rent-seekers and idiots! (though I most certainly shouldn’t call them that to ally with them). I don’t understand how this is in any way a strong case against the proposition.
Idiots and lunatics tend to get out of control and f**k things up, is the problem.