On p82 Bostrom argues that even if one research group has access to another's code, it would still take them months to change approach, which could lead to the leaders getting a full FOOM's worth of headstart. But I don't really understand why he thinks this. If I have access to your code, can't I just run it as soon as I notice you're running it? True, you could obfuscate it, or protect your production-box more carefully. But if I have that good monitoring systems, I'm probably a government, in which case I can afford to have a team dedicated to reverse-engineering your approach.