ESSAYS
The Grand Trajectory of Intelligence and Sentience
The "Grand Trajectory" refers to the direction of development of intelligence and sentience. If the following two hypotheses are true: The moral worth of an entity can be measured - as best we can - by the richness of its intelligence and sentience (consciousness)....
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The Last Words of Alexander – and the Future of Artificial Intelligence
Alexander the Great had enough time in his 32 years to accomplish many objectives. Defeating the Persian empire, conquering the Hellenic world and large swaths of India, and so on. Succession planning, as it turns out, hadn't been much a priority for the greatest...
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The Wisest Cricket
"The Wisest Cricket" is a term used in jest (and absurdism) to refer to the human attempt to understand the universe and their place in it. The term is intended to refer to the absurdity of thinking that humans can ever acquire wisdom or genuine, complete information...
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Monkey Suit
The "Monkey Suit" is a term used in jest (and absurdism) to refer to the human form. As all humans are thrown into existence (Heidegger's idea of Geworfenheit) without a say about their conditions, genetics, and surroundings, our existence is somewhat arbitrary. We...
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Programmatically Generated Everything (PGE)
"Programmatically Generated Everything" (PGE) is a theorized future scenario where the digital or virtual world becomes more fulfilling, productive, and useful than the physical world - triggering a tipping point whereby humans are pulled into increasingly...
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Political Singularity
"Political singularity" is a hypothetical event where global and national politics centers almost exclusively on issues related to post-human intelligence and power. Most of the attention will likely center around a single set of related questions: Will we decide to...
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The Vessel is Flawed
The Shamefully Poor State of Human Wellbeing “For when he saw that almost all things necessarily required for subsistence, and which may render life comfortable, are already prepared to their hand, that men may abundantly attain wealth, honour, praise, may rejoice in...
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Artificial General Intelligence – Finding the Good is Better Than Doing Good
The universe doesn't seem to be inherently imbued with meaning, but it would seem that anything we could do to find said meaning, to make our time here "worthwhile", would fall into one of two broad categories. I argue that the creation of artificial general...
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Substrate Monopoly – The Future of Power in a Virtual and Intelligent World
I’ll begin this short entry with a supposition that might seem bold: In the remaining part of the 21st century, all competition between the world’s most powerful nations or organizations (whether economic competition, political competition, or military conflict) is...
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Is Artificial Intelligence Worse Than Nukes? Maybe – but it May Be Better, Too
Both artificial intelligence and nuclear warheads could both wipe out human life, though it might be possible for superintelligent AI to be even more destructive. That being said, AI is more than an "existential risk." It's also a potential "utilitarian bloom." The...
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