Eliezer: I don't get your altruism. Why not grab the crown? All things being equal, a future where you get to control things is preferable to a future where you don't, regardless of your inclinations.

Even if altruistic goals are important to you, it would seem like you'd have better chances of achieving them if you had more power.

...

If all people, including yourself, become corrupt when given power, then why shouldn't you seize power for yourself? On average, you'd be no worse than anyone else, and probably at least somewhat better; there should be *some* correlation between knowing that power corrupts and not being corrupted.

...

Benevolence itself is a trap. The wise treat men as straw dogs; to lead men, you must turn your back on them.

These are all Very Bad Things to say to someone who wants to construct the first AI.

Do we know that not-yet-powerful Stalin would have disagreed (internally) with a statement like "preserving Communism is worth the sacrifice of sending a lot of political opponents to gulags"?

Let's think about the Russian revolution. You have 3 people, arrayed in order of increasing corruption before coming to power: Trotsky, Lenin, Stalin. Lenin was nasty enough to oust Trotsky. Stalin was nasty enough to dispose of everybody who was a threat to him. Steven's point is good - that these people were all pre-corrupted - but we also see the corrupt rise to the top.

In the Cuban revolution, Fidel was probably more corrupt than Che from the start. I imagine Fidel would likely have had Che killed, if he in fact didn't.

So we now have 4 hypotheses:

1. Males are inclined to perceive those presently in power as corrupt. (Eliezer)

2. People are corrupted by power.

3. People are corrupt. (Steven)

4. Power selects for people who are corrupt.

How can we select from among these?