Iâve got a big moral circle (all sentient beings and their descendants), but it does not extend to aliens because of cluelessness.
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Iâm quite confident that if weâre thinking about the moral utility of spacefaring civilisation, we should at least limit our scope to our own civilisation
I agree that the particular guesses we make about aliens will be very speculative/âarbitrary. But âwe shouldnât take the action recommended by our precise âbest guessâ about XYZâ does not imply âwe can set the expected contribution of XYZ to the value of our interventions to 0âł. I think if you buy cluelessness â in particular, the indeterminate beliefs framing on cluelessness â the lesson you should take from Maximeâs post is that we simply arenât justified in saying any intervention with effects on x-risk is net-positive or net-negative (w.r.t. total welfare of sentient beings).
I agree that the particular guesses we make about aliens will be very speculative/âarbitrary. But âwe shouldnât take the action recommended by our precise âbest guessâ about XYZâ does not imply âwe can set the expected contribution of XYZ to the value of our interventions to 0âł. I think if you buy cluelessness â in particular, the indeterminate beliefs framing on cluelessness â the lesson you should take from Maximeâs post is that we simply arenât justified in saying any intervention with effects on x-risk is net-positive or net-negative (w.r.t. total welfare of sentient beings).