I like time loops and alignment stories, so I think this is cool. But I’d probably suggest writing a novel first. Its way cheaper, and there is a ready made audience of time loops fans on RoyalRoad. The number is a story on RoyalRoad about an alignment failure which did pretty well. Combine with a timeloop, and perhaps some other sci-fi elements (maybe a virtual game world? Would work for nerds, who are maybe your target audience?) and I think you’ve got a solid proposition.
I’m not sure I like the stuff about a “long reflection”. At least, not without some serious thought put into how to actually make such a thing work without the researchers/people entering a virtue signalling arms race. Or any of the other failure modes that would pop up. If you put a half-baked plan in there, anyone who you’d really want to convince would be put off or mislead.
Anyhoo, a friend of mine is making an Alignment themed video game to drill this point into people’s heads. I feel like that might work better than a movie or a book, depending on how well it is executed. The experience can be much more finely tuned towards each individuals perception of how things should go. Then you guide them through the destruction of their plans, whilst letting them have fun, which should let you bypass the usual instinctive rejections.
It’s actually kinda hard, if you want it to not be nonsense. And then you have to make it exciting.
I’ve thought about having alignment going on as a subplot in a conventional adventure story—woven in every few chapters—and emphasize at the end how meaningless the more-conventional story was in comparison to the alignment work.
In terms of time-loop stuff, I think a protagonist who is demonstrably not smart enough to do the alignment work himself, and must convince the world’s geniuses to work on alignment every loop, might be grimly amusing.
I thought I came across one a few years ago, though it might have been a different x-risk. There’s an alien civilization that’s discovered that’s dead (and ‘one of their ‘sciences’ killed them off).
The Number is kind of an alignment novel, but you only see that late in the book. Arguably the Crystal Trilogy is a mis-alignment novel. Oh, and of course, there’s Friendship is Optimal.
I like time loops and alignment stories, so I think this is cool. But I’d probably suggest writing a novel first. Its way cheaper, and there is a ready made audience of time loops fans on RoyalRoad. The number is a story on RoyalRoad about an alignment failure which did pretty well. Combine with a timeloop, and perhaps some other sci-fi elements (maybe a virtual game world? Would work for nerds, who are maybe your target audience?) and I think you’ve got a solid proposition.
I’m not sure I like the stuff about a “long reflection”. At least, not without some serious thought put into how to actually make such a thing work without the researchers/people entering a virtue signalling arms race. Or any of the other failure modes that would pop up. If you put a half-baked plan in there, anyone who you’d really want to convince would be put off or mislead.
Anyhoo, a friend of mine is making an Alignment themed video game to drill this point into people’s heads. I feel like that might work better than a movie or a book, depending on how well it is executed. The experience can be much more finely tuned towards each individuals perception of how things should go. Then you guide them through the destruction of their plans, whilst letting them have fun, which should let you bypass the usual instinctive rejections.
“I’d probably suggest writing a novel first.”
It blows my mind that nobody (?) has written a sci-fi novel on alignment yet.
It’s actually kinda hard, if you want it to not be nonsense. And then you have to make it exciting.
I’ve thought about having alignment going on as a subplot in a conventional adventure story—woven in every few chapters—and emphasize at the end how meaningless the more-conventional story was in comparison to the alignment work.
In terms of time-loop stuff, I think a protagonist who is demonstrably not smart enough to do the alignment work himself, and must convince the world’s geniuses to work on alignment every loop, might be grimly amusing.
I thought I came across one a few years ago, though it might have been a different x-risk. There’s an alien civilization that’s discovered that’s dead (and ‘one of their ‘sciences’ killed them off).
The Number is kind of an alignment novel, but you only see that late in the book. Arguably the Crystal Trilogy is a mis-alignment novel. Oh, and of course, there’s Friendship is Optimal.