By the same token, you can pray to Elua, the deity of human flourishing. Ey exist in about the same senses your ideal future-self exists: (i) ey exist somewhere in the multiverse (because the multiverse contains anything that can be imagined) and ey exist with some probability in the future (because maybe we will create a superintelligent AI that will make it real) (ii) ey exist inside you to the extent you feel motivated by making the world better (iii) we can decide to believe in em together.
It probably sounds like I’m being ironic, but actually I’m serious. I’m just worried that talking about this too much will make us sound crazy, and also about some people taking it too seriously and actually going crazy.
Hmm. I feel a lot more hesitation about praying to Elua than to my future self. I especially feel hesitation about talking about it publicly in a way that might accidentally create a cult of Elua.
I also feel hesitation about praying to “Elua the AI that might actually exist someday”, as opposed to “Elua the construct you definitely made up in your mind who is optimized directly to be friendly to you, personally.”
I think it’s possible to do all that without screwing up and ruining your epistemics, or making yourself vulnerable to weird acausal blackmail, or thinking you’ve made yourself vulnerable to acausal blackmail and then making bad choices. It’s possible, but… I don’t think it’s very scalable, and if lots of people were doing it and advocating it, I think at least some people would be screwing it up.
(this is worded a bit more strongly than my actual fear is, but, seemed important to say clearly)
I feel a lot more comfortable praying to my future self because I have fairly narrow bounds on who my future self might be, and how they might relate to me, and how I feel about that, etc.
By the same token, you can pray to Elua, the deity of human flourishing. Ey exist in about the same senses your ideal future-self exists: (i) ey exist somewhere in the multiverse (because the multiverse contains anything that can be imagined) and ey exist with some probability in the future (because maybe we will create a superintelligent AI that will make it real) (ii) ey exist inside you to the extent you feel motivated by making the world better (iii) we can decide to believe in em together.
It probably sounds like I’m being ironic, but actually I’m serious. I’m just worried that talking about this too much will make us sound crazy, and also about some people taking it too seriously and actually going crazy.
Hmm. I feel a lot more hesitation about praying to Elua than to my future self. I especially feel hesitation about talking about it publicly in a way that might accidentally create a cult of Elua.
I also feel hesitation about praying to “Elua the AI that might actually exist someday”, as opposed to “Elua the construct you definitely made up in your mind who is optimized directly to be friendly to you, personally.”
I think it’s possible to do all that without screwing up and ruining your epistemics, or making yourself vulnerable to weird acausal blackmail, or thinking you’ve made yourself vulnerable to acausal blackmail and then making bad choices. It’s possible, but… I don’t think it’s very scalable, and if lots of people were doing it and advocating it, I think at least some people would be screwing it up.
(this is worded a bit more strongly than my actual fear is, but, seemed important to say clearly)
I feel a lot more comfortable praying to my future self because I have fairly narrow bounds on who my future self might be, and how they might relate to me, and how I feel about that, etc.