Thank you so much for posting that link. I am on the verge of tears. I am tortured day and night by my conviction on this issue and reading that link made me feel for the first time that I am not alone in this conviction. This man understands completely where I’m coming from. I had no idea there was a formal philosophical name for what I was trying to describe.

Every day I experience the world and I am overwhelmed by how amazingly good it is. I relish every moment and everything is rich with opportunity. But as your link shows, the world is only this way because human society and everything in it happens to be the natural conclusion of all the worlds entities racing to the bottom. We live in a magical time where empathy and cooperation are often the most expedient thing to do. All that needs to happen is for the economic equation to change a little bit and the world will contort into something else, maybe something grotesque.

I think it is also based on how you perceive the world and how you treat the forces that you don't have control over. Human empathy and tribalism arose from the benefit of working together against natural selection, and there's no guarantee for AGI to 'go rogue' when they could also just as easily recognize the importance of working with it's creators and peers. Again, the stuff you're afraid of is mostly the dystopian scifi at this point, meant to generate a good story more than accurately predict future states, so don't sweat it.

Your comment betrays your total lack of understanding. Yes, one version of the AI could exist just as readily as another. The point is that not just any random version can persist. Your logic basically rejects the concept of natural selection. I say it as a friend: you have not even scratched the surface. You have a lot of thinking to do.

You think that I’ve watched too much sci-fi because you can’t see what I see. Sci-fi treats AI in a very friendly way. Halo and Star Wars are filled with AI agents and those depictions of AI totally ignore several huge economic inevitabilities that come with the presence of AI. AI is vastly more likely to be depicted as cute side-kicks in sci-fi than anything else. And obviously I don’t believe what I believe because I watched the terminator. I used to be totally pro-AI singularity guy. I’ve been contemplating these issues for a decade and have only now started to be accused of watching too much sci-fi. Just think it through carefully and I guarantee you will at least partially agree with me.

I disagree, and nothing typed in your condescending dismissal supports what you're saying - either about me, natural selection, or AI in general. It seems like you're projecting some deep seated paranoia onto AGI, and judging from your defensiveness, I would recommend talking to someone professionally about it. Again, you're sweating it a bit too much for what's healthy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Great link, thanks for sharing. That Alan Ginsberg poem is heavy duty. It reminds me a lot of this quote from Revelation (which I read as an epic proto sci fi):

> The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.