The analogy of Life Extension to AGI seems weak to me. The problems of LE (if any should surface, which we don’t really know will happen) would be very slow to take place, and we would be able to watch them unfold and fix them as they happen. AGI is more like splitting the atom, in that it could easily reach critical mass and go beyond our capability to control in a matter of split seconds.
So no, the same level of urgent caution is not merited. I’m not saying there’s no way being careful can help us, but the mere act of conferring biological immortality through incremental advances in genetics is not something that should rationally make you worry in the same way that AGI should.
It’s really just a minor infrastructure change as far as humanity is concerned, one which makes reproduction less necessary, reduces the demand for (new) basic skills education, etc. -- it doesn’t reorganize the cosmos, muck around with our basic psychological make-up, or anything like that.
Heck I’d almost say being able to synthesize fresh meat and veggies from single cells rather than farming it is a comparatively bigger change for us to get used to… Eating is something we do every day, whereas aging is something we do once in our whole lifetime, at a slow and unnoticeable rate.
The analogy of Life Extension to AGI seems weak to me. The problems of LE (if any should surface, which we don’t really know will happen) would be very slow to take place, and we would be able to watch them unfold and fix them as they happen. AGI is more like splitting the atom, in that it could easily reach critical mass and go beyond our capability to control in a matter of split seconds.
So no, the same level of urgent caution is not merited. I’m not saying there’s no way being careful can help us, but the mere act of conferring biological immortality through incremental advances in genetics is not something that should rationally make you worry in the same way that AGI should.
It’s really just a minor infrastructure change as far as humanity is concerned, one which makes reproduction less necessary, reduces the demand for (new) basic skills education, etc. -- it doesn’t reorganize the cosmos, muck around with our basic psychological make-up, or anything like that.
Heck I’d almost say being able to synthesize fresh meat and veggies from single cells rather than farming it is a comparatively bigger change for us to get used to… Eating is something we do every day, whereas aging is something we do once in our whole lifetime, at a slow and unnoticeable rate.