If stealing got easier, to compensate we might need to increase punishment, decrease punishment delay, increase surveillance (decrease privacy), increase spending in security, decrease long term planning, decrease owning some types of assets (and vice versa), decrease exchanges / agreements / contracts.
More labour wasted on guards (and surveilling the guards), sturdier barriers, traps, defensive training and tools, etc.
Low-trust societies where interactions with strangers are risky mean clannishness / arms-length exchanges decrease, partially compensated by more transactions with trusted parties (family and allies).
[Question]
How does change in the cost of security change the world?
A preliminary estimate, and a request for better ones.
Summary
I believe the standard literature estimates for the number of DALYs attributable to a case of stunting are too low, largely because they don’t account for the long term effects. This means that childhood nutritional interventions that reduce the prevalence of stunting may be substantially more cost-effective than previously believed.
Epistemic status
Exploratory and back-o...
I’ve been feeling pretty shaken since the METR report about the Hugging Face incident came out last week. Over the weekend, I wrote up some thoughts on how lonely the AI situation sometimes feels to me. It’s more personal than what I’d usually share publicly, but I thought I’d post it here in case it resonates with anyone else.
I’m very grateful to the man...
TL;DR: Kairos has raised $50 million from Coefficient Giving for two years of funding, one of the largest commitments they’ve made towards AI safety fieldbuilding to date. We’re using this to make an ambitious push for growing Kairos, broadening our portfolio of talent infrastructure projects and incubating new organizations. We’ve doubled in size in the last six mon...
Just some thoughts.
If stealing got easier, to compensate we might need to increase punishment, decrease punishment delay, increase surveillance (decrease privacy), increase spending in security, decrease long term planning, decrease owning some types of assets (and vice versa), decrease exchanges / agreements / contracts.
Also, day-to-day behavior would change.
More labour wasted on guards (and surveilling the guards), sturdier barriers, traps, defensive training and tools, etc.
Low-trust societies where interactions with strangers are risky mean clannishness / arms-length exchanges decrease, partially compensated by more transactions with trusted parties (family and allies).