The Importance of Dream Time

Guive Assadi is a Research Scholar at the Center for the Governance of AI. Guive’s research focuses on the conceptual clarification of, and prioritisation among, potential risks posed by emerging technologies. He holds a master’s in history from Cambridge University, and a bachelor’s from UC Berkeley.

In this episode, we discuss Guive's paper, Will Humanity Choose Its Future?.

• What is an 'evolutionary future', and would it count as an existential catastrophe?
• How did the agricultural revolution deliver a world which few people would have chosen?
• What does it mean to say that we are living in the dreamtime? Will it last?
• What competitive pressures in the future could drive the world to undesired outcomes?
  • Digital minds
  • Space settlement
• What measures could prevent an evolutionary future, and allow humanity to more deliberately choose its future?
  • World government
  • Strong global coordination
  • Defensive advantage
• Should this all make us more or less hopeful about humanity's future?
• Ideas for further research

Guive's recommended reading:

• Rationalist Explanations for War by James D. Fearon
• Meditations on Moloch by Scott Alexander
• The Age of Em by Robin Hanson
• What is a Singleton? By Nick Bostrom

Other key links:

• Will Humanity Choose Its Future? by Guive Assadi
• Colder Wars by Gwern
• The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter by Joseph Henrich (and a review by Scott Alexander)