even if they were just sitting in a box for eternity.
The could be super fulfilled doing other things as well.
Right, but if they can be just as fulfilled in the box, and it allows more humans to be in this simulated utopia, why not stack 'em in boxes?
If this sounds bad, it's because it's horrible from a utility-maximizing standpoint. Utility maximizers use their own standards when evaluating the future, not the standards of the beings of the time. And so when you hear "stack 'em in boxes," the utility maximizer part of you goes "that sounds like an awful life." But that's pretty provincial - according to the people in the boxes, they're having the most wonderful life possible.
According to that view, making a FAI would be a HUGE missed opportunity, since it wouldn't do that.
There were too many pronouns for me to understand what you were talking about.
If an AI filled the universe with computers simulating happiest people in boxes, I'd label it as not FAI. But from the standpoint of cosmopolitan, "whatever floats your boat" utilitarianism, it would be a smashing success, maybe the greatest success possible. And so the greatest success comes from not making an FAI.
True, and it is a great possible explanation of the Fermi paradox as well. All the advanced alien civilizations could just be stacked in boxes with no desire to expand. On the other hand, it seems more conducive to survival to want to expand through the universe, and then stack in boxes. Also, it hardly seems objective to say that we should maximize the number of ems possible. That sounds like Kantian ethics of valuing people in themselves. Even if you agreed with Kant, (I personally Kant stand him :D) you might no value uploads in themselves.
If you were a utilitarian, then why would you want to risk creating an AGI that had the potential to be an existential risk, when you could eliminate all suffering with the advent of WBE (whole brain emulation) and hence virtual reality (or digital alteration of your source code) and hence utopia? Wouldn't you want to try to prevent AI research and just promote WBE research? Or is it that AGI is more likely to come before WBE and so we should focus our efforts on making sure that the AGI is friendly? Or maybe uploading isn't possible for technological or philosophical reasons (substrate dependence)?
Is there a link to a discussion on this that I'm missing out on?