Your point: if Cummings thinks elected leaders are incompetent, isn’t it a problem that his solution is giving them more power?
The way I read it: Cummings says elected leaders are incompetent exactly (or at least firstly) because they fail to exert power. Ergo, if they did have more power, de facto they’d be less incompetent.
That would be the possibility of conflating “better” with “stronger”. I don’t find the prospect of stronger leaders as such an encouraging one, because while Lincoln and FDR were strong leaders who used their strength to do good things there are plenty of examples (I think rather more) of strong leaders who used their strength to do very bad things.
Taking what I think is an optimistic view of Cummings’s motivations: I think he wants strong leaders who can push through reforms that will make their country better. But if you just optimize for strong leaders, which is pretty much what he seems to be trying to do, I think the default outcome is that you get strong leaders who can push through reforms that will make their country worse.
If a strong leader is a prerequisite for any improvement, what choice do we have? I think that’s his point of view, and it makes sense (as in, it’s consistent). The way to counter it would be to show a path to lasting improvement that does not require a strong leader.
True. I just want to point out the irony on hoping for a providential all-powerful machine in order to avoid relying on a providential all-powerful human. What makes you think the AI saviour will be in more virtuous hands?
Your point: if Cummings thinks elected leaders are incompetent, isn’t it a problem that his solution is giving them more power?
The way I read it: Cummings says elected leaders are incompetent exactly (or at least firstly) because they fail to exert power. Ergo, if they did have more power, de facto they’d be less incompetent.
That would be the possibility of conflating “better” with “stronger”. I don’t find the prospect of stronger leaders as such an encouraging one, because while Lincoln and FDR were strong leaders who used their strength to do good things there are plenty of examples (I think rather more) of strong leaders who used their strength to do very bad things.
Taking what I think is an optimistic view of Cummings’s motivations: I think he wants strong leaders who can push through reforms that will make their country better. But if you just optimize for strong leaders, which is pretty much what he seems to be trying to do, I think the default outcome is that you get strong leaders who can push through reforms that will make their country worse.
If a strong leader is a prerequisite for any improvement, what choice do we have? I think that’s his point of view, and it makes sense (as in, it’s consistent). The way to counter it would be to show a path to lasting improvement that does not require a strong leader.
If you are not in the worst possible dystopia, you have the choice of sticking with what you’ve got.
Then you face having to make the same choice in 10 years but with worse options.
Depending on AI timelines etc., this may be fine.
True. I just want to point out the irony on hoping for a providential all-powerful machine in order to avoid relying on a providential all-powerful human. What makes you think the AI saviour will be in more virtuous hands?
I don’t think that.