by Dan | Oct 28, 2023 | Artificial Intelligence and Global Power
The ancient and imperial China, rulers were legitimized by an ideology of the Mandate of Heaven – the idea that heaven selects a rightful virtuous ruler. Capable and benevolent rulers held this Mandate of Heaven until they lost in battle, or their people fell...
by Dan | Sep 4, 2023 | Discerning the Good Itself, The Good Must Be Explored
Discussions around AGI and technological progress often hinge upon near-term policy decisions. Okay, so we want this or that near-term decision on governance. More privacy. Less regulation. Whatever. But all to what end? What is the “end game” or the “point” of our...
by Dan | Aug 22, 2023 | AI Policy and Governance
In my discussions around posthumanism and AGI, I’ve noticed something curious: Almost all discussions in the intergovernmental world, tech media, and social media center around specific policy decisions – not on the end-goal of the speakers or writers....
by Dan | Apr 14, 2023 | Managing the Transhuman Transition
A Piping Plover can be defined as: Any human being who (a) overtly refuses any kind of brain augmentation or cognitive enhancement, and (b) believes that brain-augmented transhumans or AGIs would (or should) treat humanity well due to the inherent and unique value of...
by Dan | Mar 25, 2023 | AI Policy and Governance, Amoral Solipsism
In 1985, Microsoft was an underdog “good guy” – standing against big evil corps like IBM. In 2003, Google was an underdog “good guy” in a world of big evil corps like Microsoft. In 2016, OpenAI was an underdog “good guy” in a...
by Dan | Mar 19, 2023 | Managing the Transhuman Transition
The hyper-customized AI-generated sexual partners are coming. It’ll start with generative pornography. First in images, then in video, then with robust AI-generated personalities that are customized to their user. The male sex drive is a powerful motive force. We have...
by Dan | Mar 4, 2023 | Managing the Transhuman Transition
This essay draws upon a longer and more business-related article on Emerj.com titled Ambitious AI, which may be of interest for readers who want to go deeper on this topic. Ambition has always required sacrifice. Anyone who strives to be powerful (in business,...
by Dan | Jan 9, 2023 | Facilitating Post-human Transition Collaboration
We assume that the tech founders who are building artificial general intelligence (AGI) care about safety. The firms closest to creating AGI sure to talk about it a lot. If not for the safety of others, certainly for their employees. Even if they were recklessly...
by Dan | Dec 18, 2022 | Managing the Transhuman Transition
Today, Fulfilling Our Reward Circuits is “Hit or Miss”: Our daily lives are an amble from one reward circuit to the next (from hunger, to boredom, etc), what we constantly desire is a change in our emotional state. Very frequently, the actions we take to...
by Dan | Dec 15, 2022 | Managing the Transhuman Transition
How should we influence the “values” or “ethics” or “morality” of a future AGI? I’m not sure this kind of direction setting is possible, and it may be entirely futile, but it’s worth thinking about. I’d argue that...