Some people believe that living today, assuming the growth of humankind, is an anthropic evidence that the end is near (otherwise we would be much more likely born later). If we apply the same thinking to the universe as a whole, and assume that if a species masters interstellar travel they can grow even more, it is an anthropic evidence that we will soon destroy the whole universe. Or at least that every species in our position either goes extinct or destroys the universe.
To try an optimistic interpretation, it is also possible that we will soon create a Friendly AI, which will discover that our extrapolated volition prefers preserving the existing minds to creating new ones, and since the energy of the universe is great but finite, creating new sapient beings will be forbidden to maximize the utility of the existing ones. Then the antropically most likely position is to be born a few decades before the Friendly AI is built.
(Anyone who takes this seriously, remember the Wizard’s First Rule—people will believe a lie because they want to believe it’s true, or because they are afraid it might be true. I provided both options here.)
Doesn’t the anthropic principle provide some difficulty for the latter solution as well—why should we find ourselves at the very beginning of such preposterously long lifespans?
*Our* extrapolated volitions might turn out to prefer immortality over reproduction, but it would be reasonable to guess that over all possible intelligent species, this would be relatively rare: Living things live to reproduce, literally. They’re all about reproducing. They like surviving too but it’s never the root goal.
So even if our CEV did turn out to favor immortality over reproduction, we would still find ourselves somewhere improbable, and we would still have to wonder, why?
I can imagine a sort of compromise CEV… Say we accept that immortality and reproduction are mutually exclusive. What if we ended up choosing a softer, less tragic kind of mortality where post-organic modes of communication allow all knowledge to be passed from parent to child, all projects continued. Might that be the norm instead?
Some people believe that living today, assuming the growth of humankind, is an anthropic evidence that the end is near (otherwise we would be much more likely born later). If we apply the same thinking to the universe as a whole, and assume that if a species masters interstellar travel they can grow even more, it is an anthropic evidence that we will soon destroy the whole universe. Or at least that every species in our position either goes extinct or destroys the universe.
To try an optimistic interpretation, it is also possible that we will soon create a Friendly AI, which will discover that our extrapolated volition prefers preserving the existing minds to creating new ones, and since the energy of the universe is great but finite, creating new sapient beings will be forbidden to maximize the utility of the existing ones. Then the antropically most likely position is to be born a few decades before the Friendly AI is built.
(Anyone who takes this seriously, remember the Wizard’s First Rule—people will believe a lie because they want to believe it’s true, or because they are afraid it might be true. I provided both options here.)
Doesn’t the anthropic principle provide some difficulty for the latter solution as well—why should we find ourselves at the very beginning of such preposterously long lifespans?
*Our* extrapolated volitions might turn out to prefer immortality over reproduction, but it would be reasonable to guess that over all possible intelligent species, this would be relatively rare: Living things live to reproduce, literally. They’re all about reproducing. They like surviving too but it’s never the root goal.
So even if our CEV did turn out to favor immortality over reproduction, we would still find ourselves somewhere improbable, and we would still have to wonder, why?
I can imagine a sort of compromise CEV… Say we accept that immortality and reproduction are mutually exclusive. What if we ended up choosing a softer, less tragic kind of mortality where post-organic modes of communication allow all knowledge to be passed from parent to child, all projects continued. Might that be the norm instead?