Thank you, this post has been quite insightful. I still have this lingering feeling, maybe you can help me with that: what if the creation of unaligned AGI just so happens to not have any (noticeable) effect on GWP at all? Nanobot creation (and other projects) might just happen to not, or only minimally involve monetary transfers — I can think of many reasons why this might be preferable (traceability!), and how it might be doable (e.g. manipulate human agents without paying them).
Thanks! Yeah, I totally agree that nanobot swarms etc. might not involve monetary transfers and thus might not show up in GDP metrics. In fact, now that you mention it, there’s a whole category of arguments like this that I could have made but didn’t: How GDP as a metric is not a perfect proxy for economic vitality, how economic vitality of a nation is not a perfect proxy for economic vitality of an industry, etc.
Thank you, this post has been quite insightful. I still have this lingering feeling, maybe you can help me with that: what if the creation of unaligned AGI just so happens to not have any (noticeable) effect on GWP at all? Nanobot creation (and other projects) might just happen to not, or only minimally involve monetary transfers — I can think of many reasons why this might be preferable (traceability!), and how it might be doable (e.g. manipulate human agents without paying them).
Thanks! Yeah, I totally agree that nanobot swarms etc. might not involve monetary transfers and thus might not show up in GDP metrics. In fact, now that you mention it, there’s a whole category of arguments like this that I could have made but didn’t: How GDP as a metric is not a perfect proxy for economic vitality, how economic vitality of a nation is not a perfect proxy for economic vitality of an industry, etc.