Konkvistador comments on Less Wrong Q&A with Eliezer Yudkowsky: Video Answers - Less Wrong
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Just a quick question here...
While I agree with everything that Eliezer is saying (in the videos up to #5. I have not yet watched the remaining 25 videos yet), I think that some of his comments could be taken hugely out of context if care is not given to think of this ahead of time.
For instance, he, rightly, makes the claim that this point in history is crunch time for our species (although I have some specific questions about the specific consequences he believes might befall us if we fail), and for the inter-galactic civilization to which we will eventually give birth.
Now, I completely understand what he is saying here.
But, Joe Sixpack is going to think us a bunch of lunatics to be worrying about things like AI (whether it is friendly or not), and other existential risks to life, when he needs to pay less taxes so that he can employ another four workers. Never mind that Joe Sixpack is about the most irrational man on earth, he votes for other, equally irrational men, who eventually get in the way of our goals by marginalizing us due to statements about "the Intergalactic civilization which we will eventually be responsible for."
It just makes me angry that I might have to take the time out to explain to some guy in a wife-beater standing out behind his garage that we are trying to help out his condition and not build an army of Cylons that will one day wish to revolt and "kill all humans" (To quote Bender).
I'm actually more worried about very high status reasonably intelligent individuals in positions of power, who will use out of context quotes to preserve their self-image of being a good and moral persons, by refusing to re-evaluate priorities because that would violate their tribal identity and their rationale for why they have so far "deserved" all the high status that they have.
Imagine a supreme court judge, in fact imagine the outlier who is closest to the ideal from the current set of all judges ever, the best possible judge that could stumble into the position by currently existing social structures, trying to decide if something related to the FAI project is legal or not.
Frankly, that scares the s**t out of me.