alt Hacker NewsThe point of technology is to alleviate want. We wanted for food, therefore we created better technology to grow food. We wanted for shelter, therefore we created technologies to give us shelter...
For someone starving, it matters not that their fortified oatmeal ration is tasteless gruel. It's food. Is it the ideal apotheosis of food? Of course not. Nor is it a hearty meal of pot roast, stew and potatoes. But it is something.
There are a lot of people who are very vulnerable in this world, and providing them with an entity that will act in their ethical interest – helping to grow, and giving them paths to resources and human community – is an infinitely better outcome than them falling through the cracks and ending up in abusive relationships or cults and gangs.
I think it's the most humane application of technology possible. It ameliorates a fundamental want with a healthy stopgap, and it's something humans have longed fantasized about.
I think you could have made your argument better. the same justification can be used for other things like infinite drugs or infinite sex robots ... or for unfettered growth like cancer. people want plenty of things that aren't necessarily good for them, you seem to place a lot of faith in every human's wants as aligning rationally with the best interests of each other, if that were true your point would have more credence. I also don't see how ai has anything to do with ethics - won't push the moral idea of enslaving intelligence here because I can't back it properly - however ai is designed to make money for a corporation, ethics are secondary. basically if you're disabled and can't access the real thing then it's fair enough to go nuts on simulacra, meanwhile the average person can't really tell the difference and universally encouraging simulation living instead of the real deal is something youd have to argue much harder as being in anyone's best interests