Compared to this, the common e/acc message of "you're already a hero just the way you are" is understandably extremely appealing. A d/acc message, one that says "you should build, and build profitable things, but be much more selective and intentional in making sure you are building things that help you and humanity thrive", may be a winner.

One other argument in favor of this direction is that it may be more socially palatable than simply shouting "pause AI" without a complementary message providing an alternative path forward. It will require a philosophical shift from the current mentality that tech advancements that touch humans are dangerous but advancements that are separate from... See more

The divide between "enhanced" and "unenhanced" already exists today due to limitations in who can and can't use ChatGPT.

A first natural step is brain-computer interfaces . Brain-computer interfaces can give humans much more direct access to more-and-more powerful forms of computation and cognition, reducing the two-way communication loop between man and machine from seconds to milliseconds. This would also greatly reduce the "mental effort" cost to getting a... See more

Thanks to recursive self-improvement, the strongest AI may pull ahead very quickly, and once AIs are more powerful than humans, there is no force that can push things back into balance.

Such solutions don't work in all domains - we certainly don't want a world where everyone has to wear literal body armor - but in domains where we can build technology to make the world more defense-favoring, there is enormous value in doing so.

creating decentralized governance mechanisms to deal with negative externalities is socially a very hard problem .

Anarchist societies in Zomia, famously profiled in James C Scott's new book "The Art of Not Being Governed", are another example: they too maintain their freedom and independence in large part thanks to mountainous terrain. Meanwhile, the Eurasian steppes are the exact opposite of a governance utopia. Sarah Paine's exposition of maritime versus... See more

enthusiasm about modern military technology as a force for good seems to require believing that the dominant technological power will reliably be one of the good guys in most conflicts, now and in the future : military technology is good because military technology is being built and controlled by America and America is good. Does being an e/acc... See more