Free Will, Neurotypical Dominance, and the Path to ASI and Neuralinks: Evolving Beyond Scarcity

post by j_passeri · 2024-10-14T16:54:16.661Z · LW · GW · 3 comments

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We live in a world shaped by cognitive architectures that prioritize social harmony over rationality, and this has profound implications for everything from societal structures to technological development. When you break down most of the world’s problems, they are rooted in scarcity—of resources, time, and even cognitive energy—and the dominance of neurotypical frameworks that guide how society operates. But here’s the kicker: we’re still on our evolutionary trajectory biologically, behaviorally, socially, and technologically, and that’s holding us back from advancing to a post-scarcity reality.

Free Will and Determinism

First, let’s talk about free will. It doesn’t really exist in the classical sense. Every action, thought, and behavior we have is determined by a chain of prior causes—atoms, neurobiology, and environmental interactions. Yet, we experience free will because we act upon feelings that arise from this deterministic process. We have the sensation of choice even if, deep down, everything is pre-determined by the physics of our biology.

Neurotypical Domination: Prioritizing Social Harmony Over Rationality

Now, why are we struggling as a species to evolve to our next stage? It’s largely because of the neurotypical cognitive architecture, which evolved to ensure social harmony. Evolutionary pressure selected for collaboration, which helped our ancestors survive. Today, this same tendency pushes people to maintain social cohesion—even when it comes at the cost of rationality.

Consider a classic experiment where participants are asked to report the number of objects on a table. When actors, planted by researchers, gave a wrong answer, a significant portion of the participants (75%) went along with the incorrect answer. Why? To avoid disrupting social harmony. This example shows how deep this tendency runs.

But neurodivergent individuals, particularly those with Asperger’s, have a different cognitive architecture. For example, there are actual neurobiological differences—larger prefrontal cortices, smaller amygdalae, differences in white matter connectivity. These biological features align with a heightened capacity for rational thinking and reduced concern for social cohesion. In essence, while the neurotypical brain is wired to prioritize group dynamics, the Asperger’s brain leans more toward logic and rationality, though this doesn’t mean we’re free from biological limitations either.

The Evolutionary Lag

Humanity has become the most dominant species because of our ability to collaborate, but this same trait may now be a limitation. Social cohesion was essential for survival in prehistoric environments, but today, we face challenges that require more critical thinking and less emotional groupthink.

Neurotypicals are capable of critical thinking, but it often exhausts them, causing them to revert to familiar family values or emotionally-driven thinking. In contrast, those with Asperger’s are cognitively predisposed to be more rational, and, in many ways, this is a more evolved architecture for modern problems. Unfortunately, societal systems dominated by neurotypicals can suppress this type of rationality, which holds back collective human evolution.

Why ASI and Neuralinks Matter

Here’s where technology comes in: we need Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) and Neuralinks to break through these limitations. The current societal structure, dominated by neurotypical systems, resists change, particularly radical technological augmentation. Neurotypicals likely won’t adopt Neuralinks en masse until they become mainstream. But we don’t need everyone to adopt these technologies. Even a small group of individuals with the cognitive augmentation provided by Neuralinks, aligned with ASI, could push humanity into a post-scarcity reality—solving problems like immortality, resource inequality, and cancer.

The key is not waiting for widespread adoption. A few highly rational individuals working with ASI and Neuralinks can drive the advancements needed. This could happen with only a small cohort of deeply engaged minds, leveraging ASI’s ability to think faster and more rationally than the biological brain alone.

Why I’m Posting Here

I’m sharing these thoughts because I believe platforms like LessWrong are crucial for connecting with others who are aligned with this vision—especially those who are neurodivergent and capable of seeing beyond the social and biological limitations of neurotypical frameworks. Rather than waiting for slow, systemic shifts, we should focus on the small but highly effective interventions that can be achieved through rational technology adoption.

Of course, there’s a significant irony here: engaging on forums like this often requires jumping through hoops that demand time and cognitive energy, even when the ideas we want to share could greatly benefit from AI augmentation. That’s where tools like ChatGPT come in—by prompting it to help articulate ideas, we can streamline thought and communication. It’s frustrating that we aren’t leveraging these kinds of augmentations more fully across intellectual communities.

Call to Action

So, the question is: Do we continue on this path of slow, societal evolution, or do we focus on empowering those few who are ready to integrate with ASI and Neuralinks, to propel human evolution beyond these biological and cognitive constraints? I think the answer is clear.

I invite others, especially those in neurodivergent circles or deeply rational communities, to collaborate on pushing this vision forward. We don’t need to wait for PhDs or official endorsements—we can research, influence, and act now.

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