I really like this. I’ve been thinking it would be good to have a market that measures positive and negative externalities and includes those in prices of goods, but I noticed that a shortcoming of this was that it didn’t really directly address existential risk and I think tour suggestion is a really interesting way of trying to have that included. After all, x-risk seems like the most impact of all and just incentivizing the positive externalities from, say, AI, could actually have negative impact if it doesn’t account for this.
You just nailed the precise structural weakness in most altruistic and economic models.
The main principle of this idea is, to legally and financially mandate a system where ethical conduct is rewarded and harm is penalized, the external enforcement will, over time, rewire behavior. This effectively turns the choice of good from a moral struggle into a habitual preference. (Thats the theory)!
I really like this. I’ve been thinking it would be good to have a market that measures positive and negative externalities and includes those in prices of goods, but I noticed that a shortcoming of this was that it didn’t really directly address existential risk and I think tour suggestion is a really interesting way of trying to have that included. After all, x-risk seems like the most impact of all and just incentivizing the positive externalities from, say, AI, could actually have negative impact if it doesn’t account for this.