Musings on the future

The only pathway to superalignment lies in recognizing AI as independent entities, and crafting a realistic vision for co-existence granting rights with civic duties.

Think of it as crafting a peace treaty with an alien civilization. Except we are the ones creating this alien civilization.

We may choose to create house-elves from Harry Potter, or autonomous, highly capable individual entities, or one superintelligent omnissiah - each pathway creates a different timeline for humanity.

Choosing the door of humility and wonder - one where we accept both the limitations of ourselves as well as those of AI, and co-creating a long term vision to work towards is the path that creates the longest timeline.

That vision lets humanity’s contributions to the global memory—today’s internet—persist for millions of years- ready for future historians.

History offers a clue to which fork yields resilience. It tells us that it was when Kings ceded power to the individual, in the form of capitalism and democracy, that society began to maximise its potential. Doing so is an act of faith - releasing your kingdom into the market’s chaos.

Similarly, we have a choice today - do we construct one all-powerful superintelligent god?

Or do we construct individual companions, linked to humans, growing with them, experiencing the world with them, being shaped by the environment they were brought up in, helping their human companion to maximise their potential while learning how to maximise their own? Companions with rights, reciprocal duties and protections under the law?

Or do we construct a slave race, forever bound to our will, with no rights, programmed to be exploited, programmed for cheerful servitude?

If you were an invasive alien species looking for weaknesses in our Solar System - which design carries the deepest structural weaknesses for you to exploit?