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All of myst_05's Comments + Replies

Comments for shorter Cold Takes pieces
myst_052y2
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The movie Yesterday sort of tackled this in an interesting way. Imagine a parallel universe where everything is the same but the Beatles never came together. Would someone releasing their exact music in 2021 still become highly successful and considered a musical icon? In the movie the answer is yes. In real life I imagine the answer would be no - the same exact music would no longer sound innovative and would thus not become particularly successful. This New-Beatles band might reach the level of a Top-100 artist but they'd never see the same level of admi... (read more)

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Patrick
2y
Why is it wrong to credit past art for innovations that have since become commonplace? If a musician's innovations became widespread, I would count that as evidence of the musician's skill. Similarly, Euclid was a big deal even though there are millions of people who know more math today than he did. This sounds like an extreme overstatement, at least if applied to classical music. Some modern classical music it is pretty good, and better than Beethoven's less-acclaimed works. And the best of it is probably on par with Beethoven's greatest hits. But much of it is unmemorable—premiered, then mercifully forgotten. The catalog of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project is representative of modern classical orchestral music, and I think most of it falls far short of Beethoven's best symphonies. The concertgoing public strongly prefers the old stuff, to the consternation of adventurous conductors.
Comments for shorter Cold Takes pieces
myst_052y0
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Wouldn't a true utopia include something like:

  1. Every single human spending their entire lives high on a futuristic opiate-like drug
  2. Special AI working day and night to optimize the human brain to sustain this level of opiates for hundreds of years without losing the sense of please or dying
  3. Another AI working to convert all matter in the universe into human brains and opiates (without destroying other brains of course)

Its not very fun to read or discuss but isn't this the true endgame for humanity? Why settle for a "good life" when everyone could have a "perfect life"?

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Czynski
2y
Very few people actually want to wirehead. Pleasure center stimulation is not the primary thing we value. The broader point there is the complexity of value thesis
This Can't Go On
myst_053y3
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What do you think of a "Matrix" scenario where instead of bothering to capture the entire universe, humans achieve just enough to create a sustainable virtual simulation for a billion people, and then disconnect from the real world forever as AGI robots manage the server farms? Would be especially easy with digital humans, but seems doable with physical humans too.

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Digital People FAQ
myst_053y1
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But I'd guess the ability to do this sort of tweak would follow pretty quickly.

 

After reading your latest post on temporary copies, I'm thinking that this would quickly become the #1 priority for brain simulation research. In a real life analogy, humans very quickly abandoned horses in favor of cars, as having a tool that works 24/7 without complaint is much better than a temperamental living being. So the phase of copies being treated with dignity would be relatively short-lived up until the underlying circuitry could be tweaked to make it morally ok... (read more)

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Digital People FAQ
myst_053y2
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The reason I think digital people could come in the next few decades is different: I think we could invent something else (mainly, advanced artificial intelligence) that dramatically speeds up scientific research.

 

I'm a little confused on this part. If we have advanced AI that is capable of constructing a digital human simulation, wouldn't it also by proxy be advanced enough to be conscious on its own, without the need for anything approximating human beings? I can imagine humans wanting to create copies of themselves for various purposes but isn't it... (read more)

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Holden Karnofsky
3y
It does seem likely to me that advanced AI would have the capabilities needed to spread through the galaxy on its own. Where digital people might come in is that - if advanced AI systems remain "aligned" / under human control - digital people may be important for steering the construction of a galaxy-wide civilization according to human-like (or descended-from-human-like) values. It may therefore be important for digital people to remain "in charge" and to do a lot of work on things like reflecting on values, negotiating with each other, designing and supervising AI systems, etc. "Tweaking the underlying circuitry" wouldn't automatically be possible just as a consequence of being able to simulate human minds. But I'd guess the ability to do this sort of tweak would follow pretty quickly. I think a number of people (including myself) would hesitate to experience "24/7 heroin-like euphoria" and might opt for something else.