I wonder how this bleak picture might change if we throw cheap cognitive enhancement into the mix.
Considered it too. I just pray to VALIS that there’ll be a steep enough curve of diminishing returns associated with intelligence amplification—so that even if the technocratic elite desperately wants to maintain supremacy, it can’t just throw exponentially more resources at “boutique” small-scale enhancement and maintain the gap with “mass-enhanced” humans.
I suspect there are unknown unknowns in the scenario. The masses are more likely to have open source research. I think the elite is more likely to screw itself up with a bad ideology, but that might be mere wishful thinking.
Considered it too. I just pray to VALIS that there’ll be a steep enough curve of diminishing returns associated with intelligence amplification—so that even if the technocratic elite desperately wants to maintain supremacy, it can’t just throw exponentially more resources at “boutique” small-scale enhancement and maintain the gap with “mass-enhanced” humans.
I suspect there are unknown unknowns in the scenario. The masses are more likely to have open source research. I think the elite is more likely to screw itself up with a bad ideology, but that might be mere wishful thinking.