It could, although frankly I'm sceptical. I've had 18 years to collect data about the world and so far it hasn't led me to a point where I'd be confident in modifying myself without changing my goals, if an AI takes much longer than that another UFAI will probably beat it to the punch? If it is possible to figure out friendliness only through empirical reasoning without intelligence enhancement, why not figure it out ourselves and then build the AI (this seems roughly the approach SIAI is counting on).
This is for anyone in the LessWrong community who has made at least some effort to read the sequences and follow along, but is still confused on some point, and is perhaps feeling a bit embarrassed. Here, newbies and not-so-newbies are free to ask very basic but still relevant questions with the understanding that the answers are probably somewhere in the sequences. Similarly, LessWrong tends to presume a rather high threshold for understanding science and technology. Relevant questions in those areas are welcome as well. Anyone who chooses to respond should respectfully guide the questioner to a helpful resource, and questioners should be appropriately grateful. Good faith should be presumed on both sides, unless and until it is shown to be absent. If a questioner is not sure whether a question is relevant, ask it, and also ask if it's relevant.