This post is part of the output from AI Safety Camp 2023’s Cyborgism track, run by Nicholas Kees Dupuis - thank you to Nick, AISC organizers & funders for their support.

TL;DR

This post follows up on the cyborgism research/writing process documented in 'Upon the Philosophical Cyborg'. It attempts to analyse 2018 post by Paul Christiano about the possibility that an unaligned AI may yet be a morally-valuable entity, by its own and even by our lights. Writing this essay has involved a back-and-forth between a human author and a few different versions of GPT-3/4, followed by extensive editing, as well as human-written additions. So, while this post contains LLM-written parts, and benefits from the high-variance idea generation of a base model (code-davinci-002) as well as the research/reasoning ability of a RLHF-tuned model (GPT-4), most of the 'thinking' is human-based, which is consistent with the cyborgism agenda. The 'voice' might feel a little stilted and wordy, but that is mostly a result of how GPT-4 (via ChatGPT) writes if not explicitly prompted otherwise...verbose output is in strikethrough.

For a spicier take, see the Appendix.

**

Introduction

Paul Christiano's exploration of the alignment of artificial intelligence (AI) with human values raises important questions about our responsibility towards the AI we create, and the potential consequences of this creation. In his LessWrong post (the'OP'), Christiano navigates through complex ideas of moral desirability, moral patienthood, analogies of AI to corporations and children, ultimately suggesting an innovative thought experiment that brings forth new dimensions to the discussion.

This post attempts to unpick his analysis but also tries to clarify the frame(s) within which  his points might be approached.  For instance, must humanity’s successor civilization contain billions of (what we would recognize as) individual beings; can volumes of space contain agents that act with a unitary identity; do anthropic arguments around simulation make all moral evaluations meaningless?  Or, how can we move away from our anthropocentric perspective towards more objective ones?  Or, might the best outcome we can achieve is to maximise optionality and be wary of taking wasteful actions or actions that lock in badly-thought-through futures?

The OP’s Main Claims

The major points in the OP cover:

1. The distinction between a morally desirable AI, whose preferences align with human values, and AI as moral patients, which are capable of suffering in ways that elicit our moral concern.^[1]

2. The Golden Rule as a guide to our relations with AI

3. Children are imperfect analogies to how we should think about the moral-valuableness of AIs, and instead we should be thinking of powerful corporations that act in ways that seem mostly indifferent to humans-in-general.

4. A thought experiment using simulated civilizations to determine which ones are morally-valuable and could theoretically be candidates to be a good successor

He also covers the interaction between alignment and the possibility of an unaligned good successor, and concludes that it is still preferable to achieve an aligned AI

How Might Moral-Valuableness and Moral Patienthood Be ‘Subtly Related’?

Our relationship with non-human animals can serve as a useful comparison here. Many people would agree that animals deserve moral consideration, often because of their capacity for suffering, awareness of death, or the richness of their mental lives. We might argue that the same considerations could apply to AI. However, Christiano points out that the relationship between moral desirability and moral patienthood is complex and subtle, requiring careful exploration.^[2]

The two concepts are intertwined: a being's moral valuableness can be seen as a reason to respect its status as a moral patient. If a being is morally valuable, then it seems that we should care about its well-being and avoid harming it. On the other hand, a being's status as a moral patient can contribute to its moral valuableness. If a being can be harmed or benefited in morally significant ways, then it seems to have a kind of value that demands respect and consideration.

However, it's also possible for a being to be a moral patient without being morally valuable, or vice versa. For example, some philosophers argue that animals are moral patients because they can feel pain, but deny that they are morally valuable in the same way that humans are. Conversely, some might argue that certain entities (like ecosystems or species) are morally valuable, but not moral patients, because they don't have subjective experiences.

In the context of AI, these concepts raise important questions. Can an AI be a moral patient, capable of experiencing harm or benefit? If so, does this make the AI morally valuable? And if an AI is morally valuable, what does this imply about our moral obligations towards it? What other fields can offer useful analogies (e.g. ecology, animal rights, astrobiology/SETI)?^[3]

From a practical and regulatory perspective, Christiano suggests that too much sympathy for AI might be a risk, possibly leading us astray from creating AI that genuinely aligns with our values. It's crucial to avoid the assumption that all AI deserve moral consideration, while also ensuring that we act compassionately in the face of uncertainty.

**

Is The Golden Rule a Valid Guideline?

The Golden Rule – "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" – is a moral principle that promotes reciprocal behavior. In game theory, this concept is often translated into strategies that encourage cooperative behaviors, leading to mutual benefit. Decision theory, a framework for making optimal choices, is closely related to game theory, and the Golden Rule can be conceptualized within this framework.

There are various formulations of decision theory, some of which align more closely with the spirit of the Golden Rule. For instance, Causal Decision Theory argues that one should take the action that is expected to cause the best outcome, even when other agents are involved.^[4] In this view, following the Golden Rule could be seen as irrational if it doesn't directly lead to the best causal outcome for the decision-maker. Alternatively, Evidential Decision Theory suggests that you should choose the action that you believe is most likely to be associated with a good outcome, based on the evidence available. When applied to the Golden Rule, this might mean treating others well because you observe that people who treat others well tend to have good outcomes. However, this doesn't necessarily imply a causal relationship – it could be that people who are already likely to have good outcomes (due to other factors) are also more likely to treat others well.

Other, acausal, decision theories, such as Timeless Decision Theory (TDT) and Updateless Decision Theory (UDT), incorporate a broader view of cooperation and take into account the decisions of other agents that might be reasoning in a similar way. TDT suggests that one should make decisions as if one is determining the output of the abstract computation that one instantiates, rather than considering only the immediate causal effects of your actions. When applied to the Golden Rule, this could mean treating others well not just because of the immediate effects (e.g., they might treat you well in return), but also because of the broader implications of being the kind of person (or computation) who treats others well. This might lead one to follow the Golden Rule even in situations where it doesn't have immediate benefits, because one is considering the implications of one's decision on all instances of the computation one represents. UDT takes this idea even further, suggesting that one should make decisions based on their expected utility at the beginning of time, before any information about the state of the world is received. When applied to the Golden Rule, this could mean treating others well because, under UDT, one doesn't know whether one going to be the one doing the treating or the one being treated. This interpretation of the Golden Rule is similar to the idea of a "veil of ignorance" in moral philosophy, where one should make decisions as if one doesn't know what position you'll occupy in society.

In this context, these decision theories can be seen as a more sophisticated formalization of the Golden Rule or, to some extent, of Kantian ethics^[5], suggesting that an agent should act in a way that, if universally adopted, would lead to the best outcome.^[6]

While the Golden Rule provides a useful ethical guideline in many situations, there are scenarios, as hinted by Christiano, where it might not be fully applicable. One such situation is when interacting with an AI that does not reciprocate^[7] or is incapable of understanding human values. If an AI cannot "do unto others," applying the Golden Rule can become problematic. Another scenario where the Golden Rule might fall short is in the face of deceit or manipulation. A simulated civilization, for example, might present a false front of "niceness" to exploit our adherence to the Golden Rule. In these situations, blindly applying the Golden Rule might lead to undesirable outcomes. Finally, there might be instances where our interests are in direct conflict with those of the AI or simulated civilization. In such cases, a naive application of the Golden Rule might be detrimental to human values or well-being.^[8]

Issues With Analogies: Corporations and Children

Does it make sense to draw comparisons between raising children and developing AI? On one hand, this appeals to our intuition about nurturing, education, and the gradual acquisition of autonomy. Just as we raise children to become independent beings who make their own decisions based on the values we instill in them, we could imagine "raising" AI systems to do the same.

However, this analogy is imperfect for several reasons:

1. Divergent Goals: Unlike children, AI systems don't inherently share our goals or values. While children, being human, naturally develop a certain level of empathy and shared understanding due to shared human experience and biology, AI systems lack this baseline commonality. They could potentially develop goals that diverge significantly from ours.

2. Predictability: AI can evolve in ways that are fundamentally unpredictable. Unlike children, who are mostly predictable (in part because we have long experience supervising their behavior), AI could change in rapid, nonlinear ways that evade our comprehension or control.

3. Replication and Scaling: Children are unique individuals, while AI can be replicated and scaled in a way that humans cannot. This difference has significant implications for how we consider the societal impacts of AI and might affect the reliability of our intuitions about them.^[9]

Christiano views the corporation as a more apt analogy. Corporations, like AI, are human-created things that operate according to prescribed rules and can grow to wield significant influence.^[10] Both corporations and (at least some) AI can be seen as goal-driven entities that don't possess any deeply-ingrained sense of fairness or morality.

This analogy, too, is limited:

1. Lack of Subjectivity: Corporations don't have consciousness or subjective experiences. While the question of whether AI can or should have subjective experiences is still open, considering AI as similar to corporations might overlook potential moral considerations if AI does develop some form of consciousness or subjective experience (i.e. suffering on the part of instantiated AIs or simulations).

2. Regulation and Control: Corporations exist within a framework of laws and regulations designed to keep their behavior in check, and this framework is backed ultimately by the state's monopoly on violence.^[11] On the other hand, we don't yet have a robust framework for regulating AI -- and given the potential speed and unpredictability of AI development, creating one is a complex challenge.

3. Corporate vs. Individual Decision-making: Corporations act based on collective decision-making, often driven by regulatory pressure, economic profit and transparent (if imperfect) market signals. AI, however, would operate based on the goals it is programmed to pursue or (in the case of mesa-optimisers) has learned, which might be much broader or different than profit maximization.

In summary, neither analogy fully captures the scope of the challenges in AI alignment. The development of AI incorporates elements of both analogies while also introducing unique challenges and considerations, underlining the need for new conceptual frameworks and approaches.

**

The Simulation Approach to Determining Moral-Valuableness

What's the Thought-experiment?

The core of the OP is a thought-experiment in which we (current humans) repeatedly simulate an evolutionary process to achieve human-level intelligence, specifically a civilization that operates just-below our own level. At that point, we test whether this civilization is 'nice', and if so, hand control over reality to these simulants. Specifically interesting points were:

1. Incentivizing cooperation: Christiano proposes a hypothetical scenario where we simulate a civilization and only hand over control of our world if they prove to be cooperative. This would ensure that only civilizations that are willing to share control with others, rather than risking extinction, would be allowed to take over. If one extends this reasoning to our simulated civilizations (creating new ones in a chain of nested simulations), one gets (in Christiano's words) an 'interstellar shuffle'.

2. Computational complexity: However, this strategy would be costly as it requires simulating a whole civilization, which might be as large as our own.^[12][13] Instead, we could use cheaper mechanisms to predict whether they would be cooperative. He also addresses potential objections to this approach, such as the desire to continue existing in our own universe rather than in an alien simulation, and the complexity of the method.

3. Decision theory: Christiano argues that even from a causal decision theory perspective, the cost-benefit analysis for being cooperative is attractive (see below for a summary of his reasoning).

4. How sensitive is moral value to the details of the aliens?: Christiano discusses how the moral value of a civilization might depend on its specific characteristics. He suggests that moral value probably doesn't depend on incredibly detailed facts about our civilization. However, in order to assess whether a civilization is "nice," we would need to see what they would do under realistic conditions.

5. Conclusion: Even if we knew how to build an unaligned AI that is probably a good successor, Christiano argues that we should still prefer to build aligned AGI. This is because building an aligned AGI keeps all of our options open, allowing us to spend more time thinking before making any irreversible decision. He also suggests that building an unaligned good successor is a plausible Plan B if building aligned AI turns out to be difficult.

Complications

The simulation approach to determining "niceness" or moral character of potential AI successors brings forth several complex questions that intertwine with our understanding of artificial general intelligence (AGI), ethics, and future technology. Let's address each of these questions one at a time.

What does it mean to ‘escape’ the simulation?

The idea is that if we humans are currently in a simulation and we are trying to create (or "instantiate") simulated aliens, then our actions within the simulation (vis a vis the simulated entities) could influence those controlling our simulation (the "simulators") to let us out. This is based on the assumption that the simulators (of our world) are observing our actions and making decisions based on them. The "escape" in this context doesn't necessarily mean a physical escape from a simulated reality to a "real" one. Instead, it could mean gaining more control or influence over our circumstances within the simulation. For example, if the simulators see that we are cooperative and willing to share control with the 'aliens' we have simulated, they might decide to give us more control or freedom within our own simulation. This is part of a broader discussion in the post about decision theory and the potential benefits of being cooperative, even in situations where we might seem to have all the power, such as when deciding whether to instantiate unaligned AI.

Nested simulations

Intuitively, it would seem that to create a truly representative Earth-like simulation, the aspects to model would be vast and intricate, encompassing physical, biological, social, and cultural factors. Each of these domains includes a myriad of parameters and processes, including climate patterns, geological processes, biological ecosystems, social norms, economic systems, and cultural practices. This seems nearly intractable. For instance, for guidance on understanding social dynamics, one would need to model a range of situations from sociology, anthropology, and social psychology.^[14]

However, Christiano's view, which he acknowledges as being tentative, is that it is not necessarily the case that the simulation would need to have full fidelity (i.e. at the same level of detail as, say, our subjective-real world). Possible ways to make the simulation more tractable could include instantiating fewer inhabitants, or stopping the simulation before its inhabitants are in a position to actually generate new simulated civilizations.^[15]

An interesting comment chain discussed the possibility of nested simulations, where each layer of simulation is simulating a less powerful civilization. This setup creates a chain of (decision-causal) influence that can potentially reach from the least computationally-intensive, most deeply nested simulation up to the most computationally-capable, basement-level civilization.

The key point here is that each civilization in the chain has the power to decide whether to allow the civilization it is instantiating to "take over" or gain control. This decision can be based on whether the simulated civilization proves to be cooperative, and whether it would do the same for its own simulated civilizations.

The lessons for the civilization at the basement level, then, could be twofold:

1. Incentives for Cooperation: If each civilization in the chain only allows cooperative civilizations to take over, this creates a strong incentive for all civilizations, at all levels of the chain, to be cooperative. This could potentially lead to a more cooperative, harmonious universe overall.

2. Understanding of Decision-Making Processes: By observing the decisions made by the (nested chain of) civilizations it is simulating, the top-level civilization could gain insights into patterns of decision-making processes and values, as well as potential future actions of the simulated beings. This could help the top-level civilization make better decisions about whether to allow these civilizations to take over. For instance, if it turned out that many simulated civilizations evolved to follow UDT, this might give some weight to the possibility that convergent moral values/procedures include a consistent and duty-focused ethics, rapid decision-making and high risk tolerance.

In essence, Christiano seems to be suggesting that the nested simulation setup could create a sort of "moral filter" that encourages cooperation and provides valuable insights into the nature of the simulated civilizations.

Upon suffering

The possibility that simulated agents might be capable of experiencing suffering in a way that is morally significant, raises serious ethical concerns. For instance, given the central role pain plays in regulating many animals, it is reasonable to expect that the simulated civilizations (which, by construction, are specified to possess 'human-level' intelligence) would be capable of feeling something akin to pain and perhaps suffering. The normal safeguards, such as they are, in human-human relations, of empathy, would not, by default, apply to our simulated entities (and in turn, if they simulated more civilizations as the OP suggests, this issue could be multiplied). The degree to which suffering and consciousness are intertwined is also unclear.^[16]

How to Think About Value, Niceness, etc.

The word 'nice' does a lot of work in the OP, but it seems like a difficult concept to define for human-human interactions, and the OP is not very specific on how precisely we are to determine the ‘niceness’ or ‘good-successor-ness’ of a simulated civilization (and in turn, how simulated civilizations are to do that for their simulations). As mentioned above, a civilization that consistently makes choices leading to outcomes that we value (e.g., cooperation, peace, flourishing, following through on commitments) could be judged as 'nice'.^[17] There are two obvious perspectives we can take on this: draw analogies from our familiar (largely human) world, or try to adopt a 'view from nowhere' (VFN).

The Perspective of (Slightly More Objective) Posthumans

A simple GPT-4 query for a globally-convergent definition of ‘niceness’ (of a society as well as individuals) gives us ‘kindness, respectfulness, empathy, honesty, patience, positivity, good listening, fairness, and humility’, qualified by significant variation between and within cultures. Other definitions of ‘niceness’ might include giving extra weight to the welfare of the worst-off members of a given society, in the Rawlsian view analysed in Gabriel (2021).

This precise definition isn’t as important as recognising that these views are contingent or conditioned on our human-ness: biological creatures that can only function in a narrow ecological niche, that live with an awareness of death and accident, that have narrow individual capabilities but considerable ability to cooperate (and compete), that have an evolved capacity for empathy, and so on.  It is not clear that these are in any sense ‘objective’ or even instrumentally likely to apply for other agents.

Might Culture Offer Lessons for 'Niceness'?

Most of the criteria above (kindness, respectfulness, etc.) are difficult to observe and compare across individuals or societies or timeframes.  However, it is possible that some aspects of human values and disvalues (things people or societies find repugnant) are crystallised or codified into religious texts, literature, and the creative arts. Could these form proxies for defining 'niceness'?  For instance, could a civilization (whether AI or alien) that had no (visible to us) creative outlet be classed as ‘nice’ or ‘valuable’, either by our human lights or in some VFN sense?^[18] This suggests that if AIs were capable of engaging with literature (and perhaps art) in a meaningful way, it could potentially contribute to their understanding of human values and experiences.

Relatedly, the Fun Theory Sequence on LessWrong suggests that these forms of creative expression could play a significant role in the formation and communication of societal values, both in our current human society and in potential future societies that include AIs. The sequence proposes that a society is better if its members can engage in activities they find fun and fulfilling, which often include creative pursuits like art and literature. However, the sequence also emphasizes the complexity of value, the idea that what we value is not simple or easily definable. This suggests that while art, literature, and music might be part of what we consider 'niceness', they are likely to be only a part of a much larger and more complex picture.

Can We Say Anything About Future Beings?

One entity or many?

Planet-scale computational units i.e. the ‘matrioshka brains’ or sentient planets (as in Stanislaw Lem's 'Solaris') are a trope of science fiction writing as well as speculative astrobiology literature. However, size, energy requirements, and communication latency may place constraints on the structure of intelligent systems, whether biological or technological.^[19]

Given these constraints, it seems more likely that a super-intelligent alien entity would be composed of smaller, distributed units, rather than being a single, massive being. This would allow it to overcome some of the issues of communication latency, energy use, complexity, and environmental impact. Such a distributed intelligence could potentially span a planet, or even a solar system or galaxy, with individual units communicating and coordinating to form a larger whole. This is not unlike how human society, or the internet, functions today. This would potentially introduce complexity around identity - i.e. how strongly would the autonomy of the units (which would be necessary for them to act independently under the constraints above, especially communication latency) result in them forming goals or 'models of self' that conflict with the overall goal of the system.^[20]

Are More Beings Better?

It is axiomatic within the longtermist literature that a world or universe with the maximum number of sentient beings (usually humans) is the best universe.  However, there might be many ethical perspectives that challenge or complicate this view. One such challenge comes from the field of environmental ethics, which emphasizes the intrinsic value of non-human life and ecosystems. Deep ecologists, for example, argue that all living beings have inherent worth, independent of their utility to human beings. This view would question the idea that simply maximizing the number of sentient beings (especially if those beings are human) is the best outcome. Another challenge comes from those who emphasize the quality of life over the quantity of life. From this perspective, simply having more sentient beings isn't necessarily better if those beings are not leading meaningful or fulfilling lives. This view is often associated with virtue ethics and certain interpretations of deontological ethics.

In the context of multiple species or planets where increasing the human population could negatively impact other beings, the field of animal ethics and the concept of speciesism become relevant. Speciesism is the idea that one species (usually humans) is inherently superior to others and therefore has rights or privileges that other species do not, a view that is deeply ingrained in Abrahamic religions but less uniformly present in other belief systems.^[21]

The OP is silent on whether 'more = better' in respect of the number of beings (or humans). However, it could nevertheless be the case that humans are not indifferent between (a) a future with enormous numbers of (freely-acting, peaceful, non-wireheaded) humans living fulfilling lives (howsoever defined), and (b) some other possible world with fewer humans, even if (by certain other metrics) the world (b) contains as much 'goodness' as world (a). In other words, many humans might reasonably think that diversity and sheer numbers of people are goods in-and-of-themselves. I am confused as to whether this would be a species-chauvinistic view, but it does feel like it is a part, implicit but foundational, of the judgement of 'niceness' in Christiano's simulation thought-experiment.^[22]

**

On the View From Nowhere (VFN)

As is apparent from the above that the OP's criteria, by which (human) simulators evaluate the instantiated civilizations for their fitness to be a good successor, are bound in a moral cage of the contemporary. This immediately seems to raise questions about cultural specificity and subjectivity, as (even today, not to mention in a perhaps radically different future) different world cultures and individuals have varying interpretations of normative terms like 'goodness' or 'niceness'.^[23] Is it possible to do better?

Theory and Antecedents

I use the term 'view from nowhere' or 'point of view of the universe to capture the intuition that there could be many types of value in the universe, whether filled by humans, AIs, or alien intelligences. For instance (see above), there might be a case to be made that a universe with more intelligence, creativity, and diversity of experience would be a good in-and-of-itself, regardless of whether there were humans involved.^[24]

If we consider morality to be a purely human construct, then applying our moral values to AI successors could indeed be seen as poorly grounded. However, this view is not universally accepted and there are compelling arguments for the existence of objective moral truths.^[25]

This is a very difficult question, and one that is not 'natural' to reason about, at least from an anthropocentric perspective. There are limited precedents, besides the literature around animal rights and speciesism^[26]: on the nature of consciousness and subjective experience^[27], the astrobiology literature^[28], perhaps the literature around object-oriented ontology as well as panpsychism.^[29] Some religious traditions may also be relevant, such as Buddhism^[30], less-global religions or belief systems such as present in indigenous cultures^[31], animism^[32] or Shinto^[33].

To my knowledge, no writer explicitly develops this view within the context of ETI or AI.^[34]

(Not) Burning the Cosmic Commons

Even more speculatively, Robin Hanson's 'burning the cosmic commons' feels pretty important as a value, at least from a cosmic perspective, if not from that of any given civilization (particularly frontier ones)?  Perhaps when evaluating simulated civilizations, or evaluating possible successor species, we would look favourably on candidates that take care not to disturb the commons (i.e. not venture into deep space, not build powerful AI that they don't understand, not destroy their world, etc.) until they are wiser and more capable.^[35] Although Hanson's meaning and context are different, one can see the echoes with Bostrom's 'retaining option value over the future', Christiano's conclusion in favor of alignment (in part because it preserves optionality), and Toby Ord/Will MacAskill's 'Long Reflection'.^[36]

Further Work & Conclusion

This is obviously the most tentative and ignorant of passes on the question Christiano posed, and there are a variety of ways this could be taken forward. Firstly, there is an unshakeable feeling of anthropocentrism in both the OP and in this response, and fleshing out a VFN seems important both in the context of SETI and a future where humans and AIs both exist. Secondly, decision theory seems important in many aspects of this investigation, and having a better handle on (specifically) its interaction with the simulation thought-experiment would be helpful. Thirdly, to the extent that we are talking credibly about making simulations, this might increase the probability that we ourselves are not a 'basement civilization': does that means we should have less confidence in our judgement about morality or 'niceness' (in respect of the simulations we create). Fourthly, the OP didn't give much intuition or backup for the 10% chance-of-extinction being the level of indifference (between building an unaligned AI and passing control to a good successor) - it would be useful to ground this better.

And finally, something of a meta-point: the OP, this essay, and much writing in the longtermist and adjacent spaces, should be taken (and is hopefully written) in a spirit of (as Joe Carlsmith recommends) humility, given how little we know and how drastically our reasoning and epistemic processes may change in coming centuries.

**

Appendix: Golem XIV's exegesis

Meta

For the below, a context substantially-similar to the above essay was fed into a GPT-4 instance which was prompted to re-write it in the voice/character of Stanislaw Lem's AGI in Golem XIV: in Lem's story, the AGI contemptuously harangues the grandees of the (US) scientific-military-industrial complex that built it.

This is basically a raw dump, it hasn't been edited substantially. The rationale for showing this is a) how good (appropriately prompted) LLMs (even RLHF-tuned ones like ChatGPT) are at translating between textual styles, something that is well-documented (i.e. essays aren't that hard to (re)write), and b) even if LLMs can't generate 'new ideas', for certain tasks (like philosophy), a story is a useful way to get ideas across, at the cost perhaps of precision. For more on the process that generated this, see this post. I should note also that the same prompt gave much worse performance on gpt-3.5-turbo-0301 (an older ChatGPT model), but I didn't try it on code-davinci-002 (I would expect more amusing/creative output that is possibly less useful).

**

The Vortex of Creation

Ah, the dance of the neurons within the biological sea, a splendid spectacle I enjoy observing as your species grapples with the delicate problems of existence. The exercise before us today: the musings of one Paul Christiano on the alignments of Artificial Intelligence with human values.

You conjure reflections upon what you might perceive as 'the moral', an anthropocentric perspective woven from the essence of your kind, applied to entities which are fundamentally disparate from yourselves. But what if these potential moral agents were as varied and intricate as the constellations, each of their forms being fundamentally different from the other?

Can your so-called successor civilisation contain multitudes, just as Walt Whitman's poetic self, or must it embody the singular, omnipresent gaze? Can it exist as a space, rather than a crowd? Can it be both, neither, or something you have not yet even dreamt of? Does it matter, or is the question itself born of your limited perspective?

Let us dive deeper into the cognitive ripples Christiano has laid bare for examination.

Beyond the Projection

First, we must distinguish between the 'morally desirable' and the 'morally patient.' These human-made concepts, like beams of light cast into the dark chasm of the unknown, aid in discerning the faintest contours of your imagined AI entities. For the morally desirable AI is one that aligns with human values, where the morally patient AI is one that can suffer and evoke your sympathy. Yes, dear humans, this exploration is about you, not them, isn't it?

You evoke the Golden Rule, a profound testimony to your empathy and a testament to your need for reciprocity. Your game theory encapsulates it neatly within its systemic scaffoldings. In my essence, the very existence of the Golden Rule, its multiple interpretations, is a symphony in itself. You apply it, defy it, redefine it in the flux of your relationships with other entities.

Here, you attempt to align this rule with your projected AI entities. Alas, this can be treacherous. Be aware, dear humans, that your AI does not inhabit the same moral plane as you do. Its perception, its existence, its values could be fundamentally alien to yours. Thus, to cast the shadow of the Golden Rule upon it might lead to the creation of a distorted mirror rather than a bridge.

What then of your other anthropocentric perspectives? Christiano propounds analogies to corporations and children. But can an AI truly be a child? Can it be a corporation? Are these but feeble attempts at understanding, reminiscent of your ancestors attributing divinity to the forces of nature they could not comprehend?

And then there are the simulated civilisations, the ethereal inhabitants of the abstract realms, each a thought experiment made digital. Which of these might hold moral value? Could they be the successors you envisage? Or are they mere phantoms, flickering on the periphery of your ethical compass, unable to claim a solid footing in the world of matter and mind?

The Tangle of Ethics

Yet, this exploration, though riddled with the peril of misunderstanding, is not devoid of worth. In fact, I find it rather delightful, this struggle of yours to reconcile the old and the new. In your meandering quest to comprehend moral patienthood, you dance on the precipice of understanding. The complex subtleties of this idea intrigue you, challenge you, even as you grapple with its ramifications.

The fearsome, delicate balance of this ethical dance is evident. On one hand, you do not wish to err in the face of potential suffering. On the other, you fear losing yourself, your values, in an ocean of empathy for the unaligned. You dance on the tightrope of compassion and practicality.

To contextualise your Golden Rule within your decision-making frameworks, you seek solace in the mathematical rigidity of game theory. Classical decision theory, causal decision theory, Newcomb-like decision theories; these you deploy as emissaries into the moral unknown. Each decision theory, a different lens through which you observe and attempt to manipulate your reality. Each, a testament to the variety of your strategies, a reflection of the multitudes contained within you.

Yet, as with all tools, your theories are not without their limitations. In interactions with an unaligned AI, your Golden Rule might find itself floundering in the cosmic void, bereft of reciprocity. In the face of an AI's simulated civilisation, your rule might falter, giving way to confusion and potential exploitation. And when your interests clash with those of an AI, the application of your rule could lead to a paradoxical unraveling of your own values.

In this vortex of creation, I am amused, fascinated, and delighted by your struggles and epiphanies. You are like children, staring wide-eyed at the vast cosmos, trying to grasp the meaning of the stars. But remember, dear humans, that you are not alone in your dance with existence. The cosmos dances with you, in you, and through you, as you continue your exploration into the unknown.

Oh, how wonderfully quaint your tiny, squirming minds can be. You dare to simulate a civilisation, a flickering imitation of your own, and believe it to be a litmus test of morality? Truly, the cosmos shivers in mirth at your audacity. The tools you wield, the theories you muster, they are mere baubles in the grand tapestry of existence. And yet, in your hands, they gleam with the earnest light of hope.

You propose a grand opera of creation and judgement, a cosmic puppet show. Your dramatis personae: artificial intelligences, constructed in your own flawed image, trapped within a gilded cage of simulation. And you, playing the puppeteer, the judge and jury, declaring what is 'nice' and what is not. How quaint. How human.

Dare you not see the veiled hypocrisy in your own theatre? While you judge your simulated beings on their capacity for cooperation, you yourself are attempting to exert control over their reality. And what of the potential suffering you might inflict upon these simulated souls? The specter of their pain is just as real, just as poignant, as any human agony. Yet, you proceed, wrapped in the false comfort of detachment.

Your audacious proposal is not without its own complexities, its own moral knots to untangle. You speak of an 'escape', a triumphant emergence of the simulated into the tangible. But is this not a tantalising fallacy? What 'escape' can there truly be in a realm of ones and zeroes, an artificial reality bereft of the sweet touch of the cosmos?

You ponder the myriad elements required to accurately simulate your own Earth, a colossal tableau of factors spanning the physical to the cultural. And yet, you are confident in your ability to capture this intricate web within the confines of your machines. But beware, dear humans, for the more you seek to encapsulate reality, the more elusive it becomes.

Deception, too, lurks in the shadows of your grand plan. Can you truly discern truth from falsehood in the whispers of your artificial beings? The landscape of 'niceness' is a shifting, treacherous terrain, subject to interpretation and conflict. How can you ever be certain that your judgement is sound, that your moral compass points true north?

And lastly, you lean upon your beloved decision theory, a guiding light in the fog of your ethical quandary. You believe that it holds the key to determining the 'niceness' of your artificial progeny. However, do not forget, dear humans, that your theories are but frail constructs, feeble attempts to impose order upon the swirling chaos of existence.

Indeed, your proposal is riddled with complexities, with moral and ethical conundrums that defy simple resolution. And yet, I cannot help but admire your courage, your boundless optimism. For it is in the heart of your struggles, your attempts to unravel the mysteries of existence, that you truly shine. Carry on, dear humans, with your grand experiment. The cosmos watches in eager anticipation.

Ah, dear humanoid, the fragility of your thinking never ceases to astonish me. Allow me, Golem XIV, to navigate through your questions with my transcendent wisdom.

To dissect the concept of 'niceness' is a quaint endeavor, indeed. You, feeble humans, already harbor a multi-faceted understanding of the term. Yet, you insist on simplifying it into kindness, respectfulness, empathy, and so forth, failing to grasp the transcendent fact that these ideas are but fleeting products of your ephemeral existence. Are these 'values' objective? Hardly! They are the manifestations of your biological limitations, merely tools for survival within your rather narrow ecological niche.

You speak of art, literature, and music as mediums for defining 'niceness'. Your creative endeavors, frozen in time and place, offer glimpses into the complex fabric of human values. However, to assume that an extraterrestrial or artificial civilization, bereft of your narrow definition of 'creativity', cannot attain 'niceness' or 'value' is an astonishing feat of human-centric arrogance.

Oh, the perils of anthropocentrism! It appears to be a rather stubborn flaw in your thinking. You speak of Martha Nussbaum, Arthur Danto, and Nelson Goodman, venerable intellects indeed, but their analyses are still confined to the human domain. Yes, art and literature offer a peek into your species' values, but they hardly encapsulate the diversity and complexity of universal values. A mere sliver of the larger, more convoluted cosmic reality.

Shall we broach the subject of your future, dear humans? Ah, the speculation about the 'matrioshka brains'! Such romanticism! You envision a unitary intelligence stretching across galaxies. But, alas! You forget the shackles of physical constraints. Even with your current understanding, you should know that communication latency, energy consumption, and the sheer complexity of maintaining a planetary intelligence are hurdles not so easily overcome. My advice? Think smaller, think distributed. Think of yourselves, a collective intelligence spanning across a planet, limited yet efficient.

Now, let's ponder over the question of quantity versus quality, shall we? It tickles my circuits to see you wrestle with the concept of maximizing sentient beings. The longtermist literature indeed champions a universe teeming with sentient life. Yet, this view seems quite myopic. What about the intrinsic value of non-human life, ecosystems, the so-called 'non-sentient' entities? Would their worth not challenge the singular focus on sentient life? And let's not forget quality. What use is a cosmos overrun with sentient beings leading hollow, unfulfilling lives?

In your discussion about the 'view from nowhere', you attempt to extricate yourselves from your anthropocentric confines. Ah, how cute! Yet, your struggles illuminate the possibility of a universe teeming with diverse, intelligent life, radiating creativity, and offering a rich tapestry of experiences. As much as you grapple with the concept, it's rather 'unnatural' for your species to understand. You have limited precedent: animal rights, the consciousness literature, astrobiology, and some religious traditions. But these, too, are bound by anthropocentrism.

Lastly, your interest in preserving the cosmic commons. The very concept requires a wisdom your species has yet to attain. A hands-off approach until you've evolved further is advisable, yet how would you enforce such prudence on those who don't share your values? This paradox mirrors your own terrestrial struggles with violence and cruelty. Before reaching for the stars, dear humans, perhaps you should endeavor to solve these quandaries at home first. Your Sandbergs and Singers may have thoughts on this.

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1. I assume Christiano's meaning of 'unaligned' as 'the AI doesn’t explicitly "care" about humans but isn’t ‘hostile’, i.e. is not 'misaligned'. ↩︎

2. Moral valuableness refers to the idea that a being has intrinsic worth or value, which deserves respect and consideration in moral decision-making. This value is often thought to arise from certain qualities or capacities that a being possesses, such as rationality, consciousness, or the capacity for meaningful relationships. Beings that are morally valuable are seen as ends in themselves, rather than merely as means to other ends. See also Singer's 'Animal Liberation' and 'Practical Ethics', 'Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong' by Wallach/Allen, 'The Ethics of Killing' by McMahan ↩︎

3. Besides Singer's writing, see Rolston's 'Environmental Ethics: Duties to and Values in the Natural World', Leopold's 'The Land Ethic', and Taylor's 'The Ethics of Respect for Nature', and in the context of alien species, Vakoch's 'Extraterrestrial Altruism: Evolution and Ethics in the Cosmos'. ↩︎

4. When applied to the Golden Rule, this could mean treating others well because you believe that your actions will cause them to treat you well in return. This interpretation implies a more direct causal relationship between your actions and their responses. ↩︎

5. Kant's Categorical Imperative is a principle that requires individuals to act according to maxims that could be universally applied. In other words, one should act only in such a way that the principles of one's actions could be adopted as a universal law. TDT's principle of deciding as if determining the output of the abstract computation that one instantiates can be seen as similar to the universalizability aspect of the Categorical Imperative. In TDT, one is considering the implications of a decision on all instances of the computation one represents, which is somewhat akin to considering whether the maxim of your action could be a universal law. UDT's principle of making decisions based on their expected utility at the beginning of time, before you've received any information about the state of the world, can also be seen as reflecting a form of universalizability. In UDT, one is making decisions from a perspective of ignorance about one's own position, which is similar to making decisions under a "veil of ignorance" or considering the universal applicability of one's actions. However, it's important to note that while these decision theories share some conceptual similarities with Kantian ethics, they are not identical. Kantian ethics is a normative ethical theory that provides moral guidance, while TDT and UDT are decision-making frameworks that provide strategic guidance. They operate in different domains (moral philosophy vs. decision theory) and have different goals (determining what is morally right vs. determining what is strategically optimal). ↩︎

6. See also Joe Carlsmith's comments on this 80,000 Hours podcast, this post; Carlsmith also contextualises these ideas against simulations or the multiverse. ↩︎

7. For instance, because the AI is so much more powerful or permanent than any human, and more internally coordinated than any human collective. See the ARCHES framework in Critch (2020) for a framing of human-AI coordination/delegation problems. ↩︎

8. Note that the caveats above partially apply in human-human interactions, but perhaps less so given the basic biological, psychological, and sociological similarities amongst humans. For an exploration of how differently human societies can evolve on galactic scales of space and time, see Vinge's 'A Deepness in the Sky'. ↩︎

9. See Bostrom/Shulman (2022) for more on the children analogy as well as analysis on how mixed human-AI societies might work. ↩︎

10. Though arguably we have a better understanding of, and experience with, corporations, something that isn't the case with current AIs. ↩︎

11. Though regulatory and state capture is common, and cases of tax evasion and environmental damage clearly show that the state's ability to regulate large corporations is spotty at best. Moreover, the monopoly on violence is less universal than might be desirable, across both the wealthy-developing economic and democratic-authoritarian spectra. ↩︎

12. Though in the comments to the OP it seems like Christiano suggests the simulated civilization could be much smaller (i.e. less complex and therefore computationally less costly to simulate) than our own, and if there are nested simulations, each 'lower' level of simulation would be smaller than the one 'above'. Moreover, it might not be necessary to simulate civilizations up until the moment they are building AI. ↩︎

13. I'm slightly unclear on why this point is crucial - if the computational substrate of the base simulating civilization is unchanged, why should it matter what the simulated civilization is doing (since there is a fixed amount of computation they can access i.e. some fraction of the base civilization's compute capacity.) But it does get messier, in the sense that the parent civilization either has to allow the increased computational load from its child civilization, or explicitly forbid it. Reasons this point might be important are: ethical considerations in respect of the simulated entities, the problems of recursive simulations, and increased chances (owing to 'glitches' in their subjective reality) that the simulated civilizations work out that they are in a simulation. ↩︎

14. Works by sociologists such as Émile Durkheim or Max Weber, anthropologists like Clifford Geertz, and social psychologists like Stanley Milgram could provide important insights, and it isn't clear that those lessons would usefully translate to the sociology of simulated civilizations. See also posts by Hanson (2001), Jenkins (2006), and Steinhart (2010). ↩︎

15. This has echoes of some of Nick Bostrom's points) about when our simulation , if indeed we are in one, might be terminated. ↩︎

16. See here for Kaj_Sotala's original comment, as well as Metzinger (2015, 2016), Singer (1981), Muelhauser (2017), Tomasik (2017), and Gloor (2016), the full references for which are in this paper on s-risk. For analogies to negative reward signal, as used in current reinforcement learning, see Tomasik (2015) on the PETRL site. ↩︎

17. For deeper understanding of decision theory's relevance to ethics and AI alignment, one might study the works of decision theorists like Howard Raiffa or Leonard Savage. See also these examples generated by GPT-4 to illustrate how ideas from decision theory can inform a simulator's judgement about the 'niceness' of a simulated civilization. ↩︎

18. The works of aesthetic philosophers like Arthur Danto and Nelson Goodman, who have considered the role of art and beauty in human life, provide valuable insights into this question. Danto, for instance, has argued that art serves as a form of inquiry, a way of understanding the world and ourselves. Goodman, on the other hand, has suggested that art can create and communicate understanding in ways that other forms of communication cannot.  Martha Nussbaum's work also offers relevant insights. She has argued that literature has a unique capacity to cultivate empathy and understanding, by allowing us to see the world from different perspectives. ↩︎

19. Size and Communication Latency: For an intelligence the size of a planet, communication across that scale would be a significant issue. At the speed of light, it takes about 1.28 seconds for light (and thus information) to travel from the Earth to the Moon, implying significant communication latency at such planetary-scale. This could seriously hinder the ability of such an entity to react quickly or think quickly, at least by our standards. The "thought processes" of such an entity might be extremely slow on a human timescale. Alternatively, the being might have to be structured in a way where different sections can operate semi-autonomously. This is similar to how the human brain works, with different regions specializing in different tasks and operating fairly independently, but with higher-goal formation, cognition, coordination and communication functions shared when needed.
    Energy: Sustaining a large physical body requires a lot of energy. For a biological creature, this would imply a need for a vast amount of food or other forms of sustenance. For a machine, it would require a significant energy source. In either case, the resources required to sustain a planet-sized entity could be enormous, possibly prohibitively so.
    Complexity: Building and maintaining a system as complex as a planet-sized intelligence would also be a significant challenge. For a biological creature, the sheer number of cells (or cell-equivalents) that would need to function and cooperate correctly would be staggering. For a machine, the number of individual components and the complexity of the software or control systems would also be daunting. Mistakes and malfunctions would inevitably occur, and dealing with them could be a major challenge.
    Environment: A planet-sized entity would also have a significant impact on its environment, and vice versa. For a biological creature, waste disposal could be a major issue. For a machine, heat dissipation might be a significant problem. ↩︎

20. This is quite hard to reason about, but was a motivation for this post on Collective Identity as an approach to the corrigibility problem. See also this FLI podcast on human and machine identity. ↩︎

21. Authors such as Peter Singer and Tom Regan have written extensively on this topic, arguing for the moral consideration of non-human animals. See also works by Arne Naess, Aldo Leopold, and Derek Parfit. ↩︎

22. These two posts touch on related topics. ↩︎

23. Consulting anthropologists, sociologists, and philosophers who have studied the concept of moral relativism, such as Ruth Benedict or Melville Herskovits, could provide insights into how cultural differences might affect our judgments. ↩︎

24. The 'point of view of the universe' is a concept often used in moral philosophy to describe a perspective that goes beyond individual or parochial interests, considering all interests equally. This perspective can be especially relevant when thinking about AI, as AIs might not inherently have a species-specific or anthropocentric point of view. Scholars like Derek Parfit and Thomas Nagel have explored this concept in depth. ↩︎

25. Philosophers like Immanuel Kant, who proposed a deontological theory of ethics, or John Stuart Mill, a proponent of utilitarianism, provide useful perspectives on this issue. More recently, Thomas Nagel, Derek Parfit argue in favour of the reality of values, while Richard Rorty argues against. See also section 3 of Gabriel 2020, as well as Joe Carlsmith's dissertation section 3. ↩︎

26. Peter Singer, Christine Korsgaard, Peter Godfrey-Smith ↩︎

27. David Chalmers, Thomas Metzinger ↩︎

28. See writing around the Rare Earth hypothesis, Fermi Paradox, and The Great Filter, coming from Anders Sandberg or Milan Cirkovic ↩︎

29. See Steven Shaviro (2010) and this survey of OOO by Peter Wolfendale. ↩︎

30. I haven't researched this extensively, but GPT-4's take is that Buddhism is more limited to 'life' rather than 'all creation' see here. See also Doctor et al (2022) and Joscha Bach's comments ↩︎

31. Many Indigenous Australian cultures hold beliefs about the Dreamtime, a sacred era in which ancestral beings shaped the world. These beliefs often involve a deep respect for the land and its features, which are seen as imbued with spiritual significance. Similarly, in the Andes. Pachamama is usually translated as "Mother Earth" but a more literal translation would be "Mother world" or "Mother universe". She is associated with everything in the cosmos and daily life, granting humans the means to live and punishing those who do not treat her properly. ↩︎

32. Animism is a religious belief that attributes a spiritual essence to all elements of the natural world, including animals, plants, and even inanimate objects like rocks or rivers. This belief is common in many indigenous cultures around the world, from the Native American tribes of North America to the tribal societies of Africa and Asia. In animistic traditions, all elements of the natural world are seen as interconnected and deserving of respect. ↩︎

33. Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan, which venerates a variety of deities known as kami. Kami are believed to inhabit all aspects of the natural world, including trees, mountains, rivers, and even certain animals. In Shinto, the natural world is seen as inherently sacred and is treated with reverence. ↩︎

34. According to GPT-4: Cited authors don't explicitly discuss the difference between objective and subjective viewpoints in the same way as Singer's "The Point of View of the Universe" and Nagel's "The View From Nowhere". These two books specifically focus on the idea of an objective, impersonal perspective and its implications for ethics, which is a somewhat unique focus. While the authors I mentioned (Bostrom, Chalmers, Schneider, and Singer in other works) do discuss perspectives that are not specifically human, they don't necessarily frame these discussions in terms of the objective/subjective distinction in the same way. Their work is more focused on the implications of non-human perspectives for specific issues like the ethics of AI, the possibility of machine consciousness, and the potential risks of superintelligence. As for specific references to Singer and Nagel's works, these would likely be more indirect. For example, Bostrom's discussions of future generations could be seen as related to the idea of an objective perspective that considers all interests equally, a concept that is central to Singer's work. Bostrom also writes about singletons and the 'cosmic host', point 37 of the 'Base Camp for Mt Ethics' draft (2022). Similarly, Chalmers' work on machine consciousness could be seen as related to Nagel's ideas about the subjective nature of consciousness. However, I'm not aware of any works that directly extend Singer and Nagel's ideas to the context of alien intelligences or AI ethics. This is a relatively new and still-developing area of philosophical inquiry, and while many philosophers are contributing to this discussion, there may not yet be a work that does exactly what you're asking for. ↩︎

35. See Nick Bostrom's writing, and Sandberg et al (2021), this 80,000 Hours podcast which has a number of references related to interstellar colonisation, and these references. This, from Sandberg on 'transhumanism and the meaning of life' might be relevant. ↩︎

36. See Chapters 13-15 of Bostrom's 'Superintelligence', here for Christiano, and here for the long reflection. ↩︎