Meta-question: What is systemic change? How do you define it?
I think this a term that has become memetically dominant in the Left and has lost its meaning because it is used far too often and casually. So, now whenever people mention that term, I am not quite sure if I know what they mean by it.
I think one speculative reason why longtermist circles don’t discuss concerns like the ones you raise is because of a somewhat prevalent belief that the post-scarcity utopia will happen soon after AGI. In a nutshell: AGI will happen very soon, the creation of AGI will lead to ASI (or AGI+) fairly quickly, and if this whatchamacallit is sufficiently aligned, it will solve all our problems.
Even if an individual somewhat subscribed to this notion, they may not think about most present concerns as they would all seem trivial. After all, they will soon be “solved” in the post-AGI world.[1]
I define systemic change plainly (not as a technical term) i.e. as change that would affect an entire system or a fundamental part of it. In which case I would consider longtermist institutional reform and some work under animal welfare as pursuing systemic change. Your second point feeds into one of my key concerns which is that the absence of work around systemic change being explored under longtermism could be intentional for such reasons even though these reasons might not be formally acknowledged. I certainly think that such an assumption would be inaccurate.
Thank you for sharing your impressions! Some comments and questions:
Does longtermist institutional reform count as systemic change?
Meta-question: What is systemic change? How do you define it?
I think this a term that has become memetically dominant in the Left and has lost its meaning because it is used far too often and casually. So, now whenever people mention that term, I am not quite sure if I know what they mean by it.
I think one speculative reason why longtermist circles don’t discuss concerns like the ones you raise is because of a somewhat prevalent belief that the post-scarcity utopia will happen soon after AGI. In a nutshell: AGI will happen very soon, the creation of AGI will lead to ASI (or AGI+) fairly quickly, and if this whatchamacallit is sufficiently aligned, it will solve all our problems.
Even if an individual somewhat subscribed to this notion, they may not think about most present concerns as they would all seem trivial. After all, they will soon be “solved” in the post-AGI world.[1]
I don’t think professional longtermist organizations operate on this belief or even entertain it.
Hi akash,
Thanks for the comment!
I define systemic change plainly (not as a technical term) i.e. as change that would affect an entire system or a fundamental part of it. In which case I would consider longtermist institutional reform and some work under animal welfare as pursuing systemic change. Your second point feeds into one of my key concerns which is that the absence of work around systemic change being explored under longtermism could be intentional for such reasons even though these reasons might not be formally acknowledged. I certainly think that such an assumption would be inaccurate.