everything is okay

(this is a work of fiction)

Oof, right in the existential anxiety.

Nice story, though insofar as it's supposed to function as a concrete proposal for an AI-based utopia (or any utopia really), I think it's missing the answer to the most important question: what sorts of options or restrictions are there for creating descendants? (Such as children, digital autonomous organizations, nation-states or whatever.)

It sounds very unchallenging. 

Perhaps boring. Pointless.

(But then most utopias sound that way to me.)

i think about this story from time to time. it speaks to my soul.

• it is cool that straight-up utopian fiction can have this effect on me.
• it yanks me in a state of longing. it's as if i lost this world a long time ago, and i'm desperately trying to regain it.

i truly wish everything will be ok :,)

thank you for this, tamsin.

Thanks for writing! I'm a big fan of utopian fiction, it's really interesting to hear idealised depictions of how people would want to live and how they might want the universe to look. The differences and variation between attempts is fascinating - I genuinely enjoy seeing how different people think different things are important, the different things they value and what aspects they focus on in their stories. It's great when you can get new ideas yourself about what you want out of life, things to aspire to. 

I wouldn't mind at all if writing personal utopian fiction on LW were to become a trend. Like you say, it feels important, not just to help a potential AI and get people thinking about it, but also to help inspire each other, to give each other new ideas about what we could enjoy in the future.

Initially, I sorta felt bummed out that a post-singularity utopia would render my achievements meaningless. After reading this, I started thinking about it more and now I feel less bummed out. Could've done with mentions of biblically accurate angels playing incomprehensible 24d MMOs or omniscient buddhas living in equianimous cosmic bliss but it still works.

Would you mind explaining why the post is written in lowercase?

Thanks for sharing this, I enjoyed it!

I will copy a lil post on an utopia idea I had some time ago here as it seems relevant enough. I think it can also address concern of some commenter utopias being boring.

It is not written in a careful LW style so add caveats as you read.

rat race done right = proximal development zone world

utopias are hard to imagine. some resort to saying that utopia would be so great that we can not even copmrehend how. there are no words or concepts in our language to begin to desribe it. I'll try nevertheless.

imagine a world where every day you get a perfect challenge for you at the time.

if you ace a course, you get into a more advanced one. if you are doing great an your job, you get more responsibity. your relationships deepen.

but very importantly this can also scale down. if your grades slip, you get helped or change it. if you are feeling not inspired, your job gives you a break. if your relationship gets too intense, your other responsibilities will decrease.

you don't ever have to deal with more stuff than you can handle but you are always learning and striving and getting better. like in a computer game.

it even works a little bit like this in this world except there is no magic/benevolent AI overlord computing what's best for you. and some (way too many) people roll too many shitty things in their lives. (and maybe some people get too few?)

let's be kinder and more daring

your princess is in another castle and I am happy for you 👋

Thanks! I'm always hungry for good sci-fi utopias :) I particularly liked that mindmelding part.

After also reading Diaspora and ∀V, I was thinking what should be done about minds who self-modify themselves into insanity and suffer terribly. In their case, talking about consent doesn't make much sense.

Maybe we could have a mechanism where:

• I choose some people I trust the most, for example my partner, my mom, and my best friend
• I give them the power to revert me back to my previous snapshot from before the modification, even if it's against my insane will (but only if they unanimously agree)
• (optionally) by old snapshot is temporarily revived to be the final arbiter and decide if I should be reverted - after all I know me the best

what i am pretty confident about, is that whatever the situation, somehow, they are okay.

This hit me. Had to read it thrice to parse it. "Is that sentence even finished?"

I've done a lot of endgame speculation, but I've never been close to imagining what it looks like for everyone to be okay. I can imagine, however, what it looks like internally for me to be confident everyone is ok. The same way I can imagine Magnus Carlsen winning a chess game even if the board is a mystery to me.

It's a destabilising feeling, but seems usefwl to backchain from.