Episode 67
#67 – Guive Assadi on Whether Humanity Will Choose Its Future
Guive Assadi is a Research Scholar at the Center for the Governance of AI.
Hear This Idea · Fin Moorhouse and Luca Righetti
July 18, 20232h 0m
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Show Notes
Guive Assadi is a Research Scholar at the Center for the Governance of AI. Guive’s research focuses on the conceptual clarification of, and prioritisation among, potential risks posed by emerging technologies. He holds a master’s in history from Cambridge University, and a bachelor’s from UC Berkeley.
In this episode, we discuss Guive's paper, Will Humanity Choose Its Future?.
- What is an 'evolutionary future', and would it count as an existential catastrophe?
- How did the agricultural revolution deliver a world which few people would have chosen?
- What does it mean to say that we are living in the dreamtime? Will it last?
- What competitive pressures in the future could drive the world to undesired outcomes?
- Digital minds
- Space settlement
- What measures could prevent an evolutionary future, and allow humanity to more deliberately choose its future?
- World government
- Strong global coordination
- Defensive advantage
- Should this all make us more or less hopeful about humanity's future?
- Ideas for further research
Guive's recommended reading:
- Rationalist Explanations for War by James D. Fearon
- Meditations on Moloch by Scott Alexander
- The Age of Em by Robin Hanson
- What is a Singleton? By Nick Bostrom
Other key links:
- Will Humanity Choose Its Future? by Guive Assadi
- Colder Wars by Gwern
- The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter by Joseph Henrich (and a review by Scott Alexander)