Rational Utopia
post by ank · 2025-01-29T14:16:09.862Z · LW · GW · 2 commentsContents
2 comments
I consider thinking about the extremely long-term future important if we don't want to end up in a dystopia. The question is: if we'll eventually have almost infinite compute what should we build?
I think it's hard or impossible to answer it 100% right, so it's better to build something that gives us as many choices as possible (including choices to undo), something close to a multiverse (possibly virtual) - because this is the only way to make sure we don't permanently censor ourselves into a corner.
It's better to purposefully build infinitely many utopias and dystopias and everything in between we can choose from freely, then to be too risk-averse and stumbling randomly into a single permanent dystopia.
The mechanism for quick and cost-free switching between universes/observers in the future human-made multiverse - is essential to get us as close as possible to some perfect utopia. It'll allow us to debug the future.
What if goodness and good deeds are gradual long-term freedom maximization for the observers? And the utopia then is a lot like a multiverse - as many observers as possible with as many freedoms as possible.
The jinn that gives you infinitely many wishes but there is no catch - the jinn shows you the outcomes, too.
ank
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comment by JBlack · 2025-01-30T03:14:24.537Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Building every possible universe seems like a very direct way of purposefully creating one of the biggest possible S-risks. There are almost certainly vastly more dystopias of unimaginable suffering than there are of anything like a utopia.
So to me this seems like not just "a bad idea" but actively evil.