6 ms·
1. Cure for aging 2. AGI exists and ends up being somehow, unexpectedly easy to control 3. Russia / China / North Korea eventually become democratic Some of
by holtkam2 3y ago
1. Cure for aging
2. AGI exists and ends up being somehow, unexpectedly easy to control
3. Russia / China / North Korea eventually become democratic
Some of the “good” black swans at the top of my mind…
- asadm 3y agoDemocracy is a diversion technique honestly. “Rulers” are always a few people/corps and the fate of the people depends on them.
- borissk 3y agoHonestly there's a big difference in the way people live in North Korea and Switzerland.
- borkt 3y agoOne provides service to the outside world broadly in trade to fulfill its needs, the other provides limited service to the outside world and trades with a highly limited subset of the world to fulfill its needs
- chottocharaii 3y agoOh you. You nailed it. That's the core difference. /s
- Cookingboy 3y agoI mean there is also a big difference in the way people live in India and Switzerland, and both are democratic countries. Your examples are the result of economic disparity, not political systems. But if you compare India to China, one democratic and one not, suddenly it's not super clear which countries' citizens have "better" lives.
- kaba0 3y agoThere are eons of differences between different democracies. Russia is also a democracy on paper, yet it is absolutely unfathomable for someone to “shot themselves in the back of the head and jump out the window” in, say, Switzerland, while many political opponents, journalists “committed suicide” that way in Russia.
- suzzer99 3y agoThe key is being able to throw the bums out every 4-8 years. This gives Democracy a self-correcting feature that doesn't work with lifetime rulers.
- mnky9800n 3y agoIt also doesn't work with corporate sponsorship of the elected.
- mgiampapa 3y agoInteresting how the trajectory of the USA has changed since Citizen's United was decided. When and how are we going to fix the rationalization that immortal and unaccountable entities aren't people. AI legislation? I can dream of electric sheep.
- rnk 3y agoI don't think other democracies have allowed travesties like rich people funding elections (aka Citizen's United). It's possible the US will be able to stop it, but the insidious impact of that wealth feels like it is unending.
- suzzer99 3y agoBut at some point the people get fed up with the same corporate message and do something crazy like elect Trump. I feel like there's a limit to how much corporations can influence voters, the same way there's a limit to how much moviegoers will keep paying to see the same corporate movie over and over.
- gorbachev 3y agoAI is controlled by the richest corporations. How do you think AI would legislate, if AI legislation would become reality?
- 3y ago
- vincnetas 3y agoi prefere rulers that care about general wellbeing of theyr populations. i know i might sound like a cattle or a sheep, but i prefere beying sheep that is treated well. this is provided that we really dont have a choice or say in things that happening around us. but this still needs to be shown. so far i feel like j can influence the path of my life quite a lot.
- Smoosh 3y agoI'm unsure if we want people living forever. While disease, illness, and senility are terrible things, as soon as people can live forever we will have eternal dictatorships (or people trying for it) as well as other questions of perpetual inequality. "Death renders all equal".
- highwaylights 3y agoAlso there’s a massive philosophical quandary in there too. If people could live for much longer then they’re likely disincentivised to procreate due to worries of overpopulation and then, in one way of thinking, you’re hypothetically depriving a line of offspring of lifetimes they’d otherwise have if you’d had what we consider a normal lifespan now. Yes I realise there are probably an infinite number of takes on this, I’m just pointing out one possible way of looking at it for the sake of saying not all technological advances have universally positive outcomes.
- raducu 3y ago> you’re hypothetically depriving a line of offspring of lifetimes they’d otherwise have. I don't want to open a can of worms, but... about 40 milion people are aborted each year...
- gorbachev 3y agoI think a majority of the people who want to live "forever" are the types of megalomaniacs who want to populate the earth with their own kind of uber mench, and will actually have more children than an average person.
- disintegore 3y agoThat third point is so odd and shoehorned in. If you're talking about AGI and immortality, why not dream a little bigger? How about achieving actual democracy anywhere in the world? Not just in state elections, but economic democracy broadly speaking. Right now we are just going on pretending, and this western chauvinism of yours is a little embarrassing.