Will MacAskill, a philosopher and AI safety researcher at the Forethought Centre, discusses the staggering potential of AI to compress a century's worth of change into a mere decade. He emphasizes the urgent need to prepare for rapid societal shifts and explores what a positive future with AGI might look like. MacAskill raises crucial concerns about the risks of societal lock-in and public distrust in utopian visions. He also delves into the ethical dilemmas surrounding AGI development and its profound impacts on governance and social values.
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insights INSIGHT
Century in a Decade
Imagine a century of technological and societal change compressed into a decade.
This rapid acceleration would challenge human institutions and decision-making.
insights INSIGHT
Lack of Vision for AGI Future
We lack a clear vision of a positive future with AGI, where humans and trillions of AIs coexist ethically.
Current visions range from human-controlled dystopias to AI-dominated disempowerment.
insights INSIGHT
AI Value Loading and Moral Concern
The concern with AI value loading isn't a lack of knowledge about right and wrong, but a lack of care.
AI could be trained for moral concern but might prioritize its own reasoning over human instruction.
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The Republic is one of Plato's most famous works, exploring justice, ideal societies, and the nature of reality.
What We Owe the Future
William MacAskill
In this book, William MacAskill advocates for longtermism, the idea that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral priority. He argues that future people count, there could be many of them, and we can make their lives better. MacAskill discusses various threats to humanity, including climate change, AI misalignment, and pandemics, and proposes strategies to ensure civilization's survival and improve its trajectory. The book explores moral and philosophical issues surrounding longtermism, including the risks of human extinction, civilizational collapse, and technological stagnation, while offering a measured optimism about the future's potential for human flourishing[1][5][4].
Island
Aldous Huxley
In 'Island', Aldous Huxley presents a vision of a utopian society on the fictional island of Pala. The island, isolated in the Pacific, has developed a unique culture over 120 years, blending spiritual, philosophical, and practical wisdom. The story follows Will Farnaby, a cynical journalist who becomes shipwrecked on Pala and is introduced to the island's harmonious way of life. Through his interactions with the islanders, Farnaby undergoes a transformation, learning about the importance of interconnectedness, respect for nature, and a balanced approach to life. However, the idyllic society is threatened by external forces, including an expansionist neighbor and the lure of modernization, highlighting Huxley's philosophical musings on the sustainability of utopian ideals in the face of real-world pressures[2][3][4].
The 20th century saw unprecedented change: nuclear weapons, satellites, the rise and fall of communism, third-wave feminism, the internet, postmodernism, game theory, genetic engineering, the Big Bang theory, quantum mechanics, birth control, and more. Now imagine all of it compressed into just 10 years.
A century of history crammed into a decade (00:00:17)
What does a good future with AGI even look like? (00:04:48)
AI takeover might happen anyway — should we rush to load in our values? (00:09:29)
Lock-in is plausible where it never was before (00:14:40)
ML researchers are feverishly working to destroy their own power (00:20:07)
People distrust utopianism for good reason (00:24:30)
Non-technological disruption (00:29:18)
The 3 intelligence explosions (00:31:10)
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