I’m afraid that we’re technologically developing too slowly and are going to lose the race to extraterrestrial civilizations that will either proactively destroy us on Earth or limit our expansion. One of the issues with this risk is that solving it runs directly counter to the typical solutions for AI-risk and other We’re Developing Too Quickly For Our Own Good-style existential risks.
To prevent misaligned AI we should develop technology more slowly and steadily; MIRI would rather we develop AI 50 years from now than tomorrow to give them more time to solve the alignment problem. From my point of view that 50 years of slowed development may be what makes or breaks our potential future conflict with Aliens.
As technology level increases, smaller and smaller advantages in technological development time will necessarily lead to one-sided trounces. The military of the future will be able to absolutely crush the military from just a year earlier. So as time goes on it becomes more and more imperative that we increase our speed of technological development to make sure we never get trounced.
I’m afraid that we’re technologically developing too slowly and are going to lose the race to extraterrestrial civilizations that will either proactively destroy us on Earth or limit our expansion. One of the issues with this risk is that solving it runs directly counter to the typical solutions for AI-risk and other We’re Developing Too Quickly For Our Own Good-style existential risks.
To prevent misaligned AI we should develop technology more slowly and steadily; MIRI would rather we develop AI 50 years from now than tomorrow to give them more time to solve the alignment problem. From my point of view that 50 years of slowed development may be what makes or breaks our potential future conflict with Aliens.
As technology level increases, smaller and smaller advantages in technological development time will necessarily lead to one-sided trounces. The military of the future will be able to absolutely crush the military from just a year earlier. So as time goes on it becomes more and more imperative that we increase our speed of technological development to make sure we never get trounced.