You mention that the ability to create digital people could lead to dystopian outcomes or a Malthusian race to the bottom. In my humble opinion bad outcomes could only be avoided if there is a world government that monitors what happens on every computer that is capable to run digital people. Of course, such a powerful governerment is a risk of its own.
Moreover I think that a benevolent world goverment can be realised only several centuries in the future, while mind uploading could be possible at the end of this century. Therefore I believe that bad outcomes are much more likely than good ones. I would be glad to hear if you have some arguments why this line of reasoning could be wrong.
It seems very non-obvious to me whether we should think bad outcomes are more likely than good ones. You asked about arguments for why things might go well; a couple that occur to me are (a) as long as large numbers of digital people are committed to protecting human rights and other important values, it seems like there is a good chance they will broadly succeed (even if they don’t manage to stop every case of abuse); (b) increased wealth and improved social science might cause human rights and other important values to be prioritized more highly, and might help people coordinate more effectively.
You mention that the ability to create digital people could lead to dystopian outcomes or a Malthusian race to the bottom. In my humble opinion bad outcomes could only be avoided if there is a world government that monitors what happens on every computer that is capable to run digital people. Of course, such a powerful governerment is a risk of its own.
Moreover I think that a benevolent world goverment can be realised only several centuries in the future, while mind uploading could be possible at the end of this century. Therefore I believe that bad outcomes are much more likely than good ones. I would be glad to hear if you have some arguments why this line of reasoning could be wrong.
It seems very non-obvious to me whether we should think bad outcomes are more likely than good ones. You asked about arguments for why things might go well; a couple that occur to me are (a) as long as large numbers of digital people are committed to protecting human rights and other important values, it seems like there is a good chance they will broadly succeed (even if they don’t manage to stop every case of abuse); (b) increased wealth and improved social science might cause human rights and other important values to be prioritized more highly, and might help people coordinate more effectively.