Two hours before you posted this, MacAskill posted a brief explanation of viatopianism.
This essay is the first in a series that discusses what a good north star [for post-superintelligence society] might be. I begin by describing a concept that I find helpful in this regard:
Viatopia: an intermediate state of society that is on track for a near-best future, whatever that might look like.
Viatopia is a waystation rather than a final destination; etymologically, it means “by way of this place”. We can often describe good waystations even if we have little idea what the ultimate destination should be. A teenager might have little idea what they want to do with their life, but know that a good education will keep their options open. Adventurers lost in the wilderness might not know where they should ultimately be going, but still know they should move to higher ground where they can survey the terrain. Similarly, we can identify what puts humanity in a good position to navigate towards excellent futures, even if we don’t yet know exactly what those futures look like.
In the past, Toby Ord and I have promoted the related idea of the “long reflection”: a stable state of the world where we are safe from calamity, and where we reflect on and debate the nature of the good life, working out what the most flourishing society would be. Viatopia is a more general concept: the long reflection is one proposal for what viatopia would look like, but it need not be the only one.
I think that some sufficiently-specified conception of viatopia should act as our north star during the transition to superintelligence. In later essays I’ll discuss what viatopia, concretely, might look like; this note will just focus on explaining the concept.
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Unlike utopianism, it cautions against the idea of having some ultimate end-state in mind. Unlike protopianism, it attempts to offer a vision for where society should be going. It focuses on achieving whatever society needs to be able to steer itself towards a truly wonderful outcome.
I think I’m largely on board. I think I’d favor doing some amount of utopian planning (aiming for something like hedonium and acausal trade). Viatopia sounds less weird than utopias like that. I wouldn’t be shocked if Forethought talked relatively more about viatopia because it sounds less weird. I would be shocked if they push us in the direction of anodyne final outcomes. I agree with Peter that stuff is “convex” but I don’t worry that Forethought will have us tile the universe with compromisium. But I don’t have much private info.
Yeah, agreed on that point. Folks at Forethought aren’t necessarily thinking about what a near-optimal future should look like, they’re thinking about how to get civilisation to a point where we can make the best possible decisions about what to do with the long-term future.
Actually Jordan, better than “pretty ok” futures is explicitly something that folks at Forethought have been thinking about. Just not in the Viatopia piece.
Check this out: https://www.forethought.org/research/better-futures
Two hours before you posted this, MacAskill posted a brief explanation of viatopianism.
I think I’m largely on board. I think I’d favor doing some amount of utopian planning (aiming for something like hedonium and acausal trade). Viatopia sounds less weird than utopias like that. I wouldn’t be shocked if Forethought talked relatively more about viatopia because it sounds less weird. I would be shocked if they push us in the direction of anodyne final outcomes. I agree with Peter that stuff is “convex” but I don’t worry that Forethought will have us tile the universe with compromisium. But I don’t have much private info.
I should read that piece. In general, I am very into the Long Reflection and I guess also the Viatopia stuff.
Yeah, agreed on that point. Folks at Forethought aren’t necessarily thinking about what a near-optimal future should look like, they’re thinking about how to get civilisation to a point where we can make the best possible decisions about what to do with the long-term future.
Actually Jordan, better than “pretty ok” futures is explicitly something that folks at Forethought have been thinking about. Just not in the Viatopia piece. Check this out: https://www.forethought.org/research/better-futures