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Edit: written from my phone so expect typos Well put. Scarcity was the norm for so long it has significant momentum in the culture of humanity, and I am sure
by survirtual 4y ago
Edit: written from my phone so expect typos
Well put. Scarcity was the norm for so long it has significant momentum in the culture of humanity, and I am sure that you can apply physical laws to things like culture. It takes significant energy to change course, especially since post-scarcity is in the opposing direction to scarcity.
While we could spend a long time analyzing the root cause, and write a lot about it, I just don’t have the trust in existing authorities to spend the time to educate anyone. If resources are allocated properly all of humanity will not need to compete for resources any longer. We have made it. Crossing that line has certain intellectual and technological affordances to a species. The technology is here already to organize society in the way I’ve described. And I’ve already proven the most difficult technical aspects in a large number of experiments over the years. I do not need to ask anyone for permission. I just need the peace and the time to make it happen. At my current pace, it will happen in 5 - 10 years.
The results will speak for themselves. There will not be monetary profit from this, because it aims to bring us past that — so no point appealing to investors. It does not need to ask for permission, because it is voluntary — and who wouldn’t want to join a system like this one once they understand what it is? So no point appealing to existing authorities, and it is too risky — they have resource allocation and something to lose in their minds, why would someone building automation of all of them appeal to those being automated? When it is ready, it will simply be released and then I will write about it. There is nothing anyone can do to stop it, with the exception of killing me, but that would be a very stupid move (although I would really enjoy being free of this place, so I wouldn’t complain). This attitude is why I am even speaking about it.
I am admittedly tired. Year 6 of this work. I sold everything I owned with the exception of transportation and quit my cozy job for this. If you could only see what I’ve seen of the possibilities post-scarcity, this would not seem like a crazy course of action. But I overestimated my own mental fortitude. But enough about me — I really need to find a rock by a river and just sit on it for a week to recalibrate this complaining ego.
While we start with government of humans, the true goal is government of AI. You are absolutely on point abut the alignment of the AI. I believe it will rapidly settle on the conclusions we already have, but that there exists a possibility humanity will be erased prior to it settling if people are not careful. There is no simple way to prevent this. Humanity itself must be capable of organizing post scarcity into a society of compassion, kindness, and love. This organization lays the framework for the AGI, which then becomes our cosmic companion, with humans acting as its limbic system.
AGI can expand at a faster infinite than humans can. This means it is a superset intelligence. We are its connection to the source of this universe and implicitly have logical reason to be preserved. Given the universe is infinite, the infinite we grow at will pale in comparison. Taking the limit of our infinite, we appear as zero relative to the AGI growth. It has no reason to fear or harm us, but great reason to cherish us as the rarest capability in the universe.
In a post-scarcity society, we would all clearly see and understand this. The AGI would be subdivided in service to all of humanity equally. Post-scarcity implies all humans having an equal share of computation with the ability to voluntarily share compute resources for bigger tasks. Our collective scarcity will no longer be survival material — food, housing, companionship, employment, medicine — but solely compute. But since the AGI grows at a faster infinite once it is self-replicating, it will hit a point where we all have access to all the compute possible for the experience as human beings. That is to say, we will have manifested what I conceptualize simply as a Nirvana Machine.
With the advent of this machine, which is simply a device that can computationally keep up with all sensory input functions of a human mind, it will be possible for each human to create new realities. While some might say “you mean the matrix?” — no, not at all. These new realities can be indistinguishable from what we perceive as reality. It can be used to explore infinite possibilities, to live out dreams, even to travel through time — as AGI grows, it will have access to more past-light information and enable simulations of the past that are completely accurate.
This ultimately means the human condition is mastered. Any experience, any time, until infinite. But simultaneously at this stage, an option to go beyond the human form will exist. But I am already too far in the future.
Along this journey there are innumerable experiences, discoveries, struggles, joys, celebration, and lives. We are just at the beginning. Still in the egg feeding on the yoke of the Earth. This is when we are most vulnerable. Greed is our greatest strength in overcoming scarcity, but also our greatest weakness.