“Thou O Queen canst scarcely know our grief; for to thee the blessed Gods gave thy heart’s desire: youth for ever, and peace. Would they might give us our good gift, that should be youth for ever, and war; and unwaning strength and skill in arms. Would they might but give us our great enemies alive and whole again. For better it were we should run hazard again of utter destruction, than thus live out our lives like cattle fattening for the slaughter, or like silly garden plants.”
True, but it would nevertheless make for a decent compromise. Do you have a better suggestion?
It isn’t much of a compromise. It presumes enough coherence for everyone to agree on a supreme power that all shall obey, to divide the cake and enforce the borders.
To see how the situation is actually handled, look around you, at the whole world now and in the past.
Whenever there is no common resolve to leave each other alone, then as has been observed of old, the strong do what they will and the weak bear what they must. Europe managed it in the Treaty of Westphalia, but it took thirty years of slaughtering each other for them to decide that no-one was ever going to win, and draw up a massive agreement to disagree. Best of luck getting any such agreement today between (for example) jihadists and everyone else. Or SJWs and neoreactionaries. Adding superintelligence would be like squabbling children getting hold of nuclear weapons.
That itself would go against some values.
E.R. Eddision, The Worm Ouroboros
True, but it would nevertheless make for a decent compromise. Do you have a better suggestion?
It isn’t much of a compromise. It presumes enough coherence for everyone to agree on a supreme power that all shall obey, to divide the cake and enforce the borders.
To see how the situation is actually handled, look around you, at the whole world now and in the past. Whenever there is no common resolve to leave each other alone, then as has been observed of old, the strong do what they will and the weak bear what they must. Europe managed it in the Treaty of Westphalia, but it took thirty years of slaughtering each other for them to decide that no-one was ever going to win, and draw up a massive agreement to disagree. Best of luck getting any such agreement today between (for example) jihadists and everyone else. Or SJWs and neoreactionaries. Adding superintelligence would be like squabbling children getting hold of nuclear weapons.