I agree.
But AFAICT that doesn’t really change the conclusion that less agents would tend to make the world more predictable/controllable. As you say yourself:
I don’t think other agents are different from any other physical system that might be more-or-less chaotic, unpredictable or difficult to control.
And that was the weaker of the two apparent problems. What about the {implied self-preservation and resource acquisition} part?
I agree. But AFAICT that doesn’t really change the conclusion that less agents would tend to make the world more predictable/controllable. As you say yourself:
And that was the weaker of the two apparent problems. What about the {implied self-preservation and resource acquisition} part?