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KatjaGrace comments on Superintelligence 17: Multipolar scenarios - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: KatjaGrace 06 January 2015 06:44AM

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Comment author: KatjaGrace 06 January 2015 06:47:26AM *  3 points [-]

Do you think there will be times of malthusian destitution in the future? (p163-6)

Comment author: diegocaleiro 10 February 2015 11:26:23PM 0 points [-]

Many wild populations of non-island animals already have been through long selective pressures to the point of Malthusian conditions being reached by the worse off members of a population. Human societies, even the most primitive ones, live in cultures of perceived abundance, where much less than what we consider minimal is seen as enough to spend 6 hours a day chatting, gossiping, waging war or courting.

Human preferences seem to be logarithmic on amount of resources for many humans. I don't think I'd worry much about not owning the Moon once you gave me the Earth. One could envision a world where abundance far surpasses the needs of all after redistribution. people like Thiel seem to defend this as highly likely.

But then time keeps running and whoever is still multiplying will take more resources, or who is owning a lot and spending little.