logoalt Hacker News

andaitoday at 12:17 PM2 repliesview on HN

We have, as a civilization, two paths before us:

a) Decouple the value of human life from labour.

b) Watch as the value of human life rapidly approaches zero.

---

Though I'd expand this by adding "technically alive" is not a very good standard to aim for. Ostensibly we're already heading for something like poverty level UBI + living in pod + eating the proverbial bugs. We need a level above that!

A great exploration of the pitfalls of "preserve humanity" as a reward function is the video game SOMA. I think you also need "preserve dignity" to make the life actually worth living.

(Path `a` is not without its pitfalls: what lack of survival pressure might do to the human culture and genome, I leave as an exercise for the reader! But path `b` I think we already have enough examples of, to know better...)


Replies

bluefirebrandtoday at 1:21 PM

> We have, as a civilization, two paths before us

You forgot C: Butlerian Jihad. mass outlaw AI research, AI usage, AI building, AI infrastructure, on penalty of death

It may not be a good option but it's there

show 2 replies
Throaway199999today at 1:23 PM

When the value of human labour reaches zero the economy will collapse so that will be interesting.

show 1 reply