Democracy and AI: “play it safe” situations
Hello again!
The following text is a short excerpt from "Neuralink and the Brain’s Magical Future" article on Tim Urban's blog WaitButWhy. Awesome blog by the way!
This is just a good reminder for those who live in democracy to be grateful for democracy.
Abraham Lincoln was pleased with himself when he came up with the line:
—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Fair—it’s a good line.
The whole idea of “of the people, by the people, for the people” is the centerpiece of democracy.
Unfortunately, “the people” are unpleasant. So democracy ends up being unpleasant. But unpleasant tends to be a dream compared to the alternatives. Elon talked about this:
I think that the protection of the collective is important. I think it was Churchill who said, “Democracy’s the worst of all systems of government, except for all the others.” It’s fine if you have Plato’s incredible philosopher king as the king, sure. That would be fine. Now, most dictators do not turn out that way. They tend to be quite horrible.
In other words, democracy is like escaping from a monster by hiding in a sewer.
There are plenty of times in life when it’s a good strategy to take a risk in order to give yourself a chance for the best possible outcome, but when the stakes are at their absolute highest, the right move is usually to play it safe. Power is one of those times. That’s why, even though democracy essentially guarantees a certain level of mediocrity, Elon says, “I think you’re hard-pressed to find many people in the United States who, no matter what they think of any given president, would advocate for a dictatorship.”
And since Elon sees AI as the ultimate power, he sees AI development as the ultimate “play it safe” situation. Which is why his strategy for minimizing existential AI risk seems to essentially be that AI power needs to be of the people, by the people, for the people.
And yeah, it is quite important for the people to survive.
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Very well said 👍
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