Zvi recently coined a nice distinction between AGI-pilled and ASI-pilled: as more people are reckoning with the speed of progress, some are beginning to come around to the fact that AI could be superhuman at a huge range of tasks in a way that radically reshapes society, but not that it could leap us to the end of the tech tree shortly afterwards and start making nanotech and dyson spheres.

Hence, you see people saying things like “Because of AI we must rethink the entire notion of mathematical progress”, or “I have to make sure I amass lots of capital before most jobs get automated”: pretty crazy statements, and yet, still not quite grappling with how wild things could get in the next few years, let alone the next decade.

I feel a particular frustration here as someone who is both pretty ASI-pilled and pretty into liberal democracy. And when I say liberal democracy I don’t so much mean the specific political structure that seems efficient at our current tech level but rather the set of underlying moral commitments like non-domination and a government of the people — commitments which I’m aware might soon be a lot more expensive.

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The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 8th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eSMburFT9eRxHWijf/asi-and-liberty-can-we-do-better-than-a-benevolent-god

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

De parabel der blinden, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Still from (and rot13 spoiler for) Gur Gehzna Fubj

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“ASI and Liberty: Can we do better than a benevolent god?” by Raymond Douglas

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“ASI and Liberty: Can we do better than a benevolent god?” by Raymond Douglas