This argument, The Valley Argument, occurred to me in the second half of 2024 and to my knowledge, it is an original formulation of the argument that does not exist in the literature. The closest thing that you can find in the literature is Pascal’s mugging, or on the topic of AI and suffering something like Roko’s basilisk.
I have not found a satisfying answer to the Valley Argument, that either does not involve near-zero odds or a punitive afterlife. There are possible answers that do not involve either, but in my view are not satisfactory. You can discuss the argument with OpenAI o1 or DeepSeek R1 models, and maybe they come up with something that you will find satisfactory—but I have not seen a satisfactory answer that solves the argument.
In my view, given the situation where we are right now—and the best knowledge that we have now (not 5000 years from now) the most promising path to avoid argument’s conclusion is to assume a negative afterlife or to come up with some formula of multiple answers (moral obligation + something else + something else). I have not seen the answer that works yet, but given our situation for most people, negative afterlife avenue would be the most convincing answer to the argument.
This argument, The Valley Argument, occurred to me in the second half of 2024 and to my knowledge, it is an original formulation of the argument that does not exist in the literature. The closest thing that you can find in the literature is Pascal’s mugging, or on the topic of AI and suffering something like Roko’s basilisk.
I have not found a satisfying answer to the Valley Argument, that either does not involve near-zero odds or a punitive afterlife. There are possible answers that do not involve either, but in my view are not satisfactory. You can discuss the argument with OpenAI o1 or DeepSeek R1 models, and maybe they come up with something that you will find satisfactory—but I have not seen a satisfactory answer that solves the argument.
In my view, given the situation where we are right now—and the best knowledge that we have now (not 5000 years from now) the most promising path to avoid argument’s conclusion is to assume a negative afterlife or to come up with some formula of multiple answers (moral obligation + something else + something else). I have not seen the answer that works yet, but given our situation for most people, negative afterlife avenue would be the most convincing answer to the argument.