I’m very torn. I fully agree with Raemon’s concerns, and might even go further: competent people are rare, and fully goal-aligned people are nonexistent. Looking at accounts from previous times is an existence proof of different equilibria, but does not imply that they’re available today.
And if you look closer, those previous equilibria were missing some features that we hold dear today, such as fairly long periods at the beginning and end of life where economic production isn’t a driving need, some amount of respect for people very different from ourselves, and a knowledge that the current equilibrium isn’t permanent.
The part I’m torn on is that I deeply support experimenting and thinking on these topics, and I very much hope that my predictions are incorrect. This is a case where investing mental energy on a low-probability high-payoff topic seems justified.
I’m very torn. I fully agree with Raemon’s concerns, and might even go further: competent people are rare, and fully goal-aligned people are nonexistent. Looking at accounts from previous times is an existence proof of different equilibria, but does not imply that they’re available today.
And if you look closer, those previous equilibria were missing some features that we hold dear today, such as fairly long periods at the beginning and end of life where economic production isn’t a driving need, some amount of respect for people very different from ourselves, and a knowledge that the current equilibrium isn’t permanent.
The part I’m torn on is that I deeply support experimenting and thinking on these topics, and I very much hope that my predictions are incorrect. This is a case where investing mental energy on a low-probability high-payoff topic seems justified.