(Cross-posted from my website. Podcast version here, or search for "Joe Carlsmith Audio" on your podcast app.

This essay is part of a series that I'm calling "Otherness and control in the age of AGI." I'm hoping that the individual essay can be read fairly well on their own, but see here for brief summaries of the essays that have been released thus far.)

Earlier in this series, I discussed a certain kind of concern about the AI alignment discourse – namely, that it aspires to exert an inappropriate degree of control over the values that guide the future. In considering this concern, I think it's important to bear in mind the aspects of our own values that are specifically focused on pluralism, tolerance, helpfulness, and inclusivity towards values different-from-our-own (I discussed these in the last essay). But I don't think this is enough, on its own [...]

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Outline:

(01:03) Tyrants and poultry-keepers

(12:29) Are we the conditioners?

(17:50) Lewiss argument in a moral realist world

(23:16) What if the Tao isnt a thing, though?

(32:02) Even without the Tao, shaping the futures values need not be tyranny

(35:13) Freedom in a naturalistic world

(41:53) Does treating values as natural make them natural?

(47:04) Naturalists who still value stuff

(53:23) What should the conditioners actually do, though?

(56:51) On not-brain-washing

(01:04:15) On influencing the values of not-yet-existing agents

The original text contained 37 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
January 18th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/oJRMDAvWk8diDjNsG/on-the-abolition-of-man

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“On the abolition of man” by Joe Carlsmith

LessWrong (30+ Karma)