A little more to the point, I think Yudkowsky is seriously underestimating the information/coordination costs associated with finding the next Steve Jobs. Maybe one does exist—in fact, I would say I am pretty sure one does—but how do you find them? How do you get them interested? How do you verify they can do what Steve did, without handing them control of a trillion dollar company? How can you convince everyone else that they should trust and support new-Steve’s decisions?
These seem like the more significant obstacles than just any new Steve existing at all.
On specifically getting them interested: presumably, new-Steve-Jobs doesn’t want to come in and run someone else’s company, they want to start their own. You could pay them a lot of money, but if they really are Jobs, the opportunity cost of not starting their own is extremely high!
i think Tim Cook is doing a good job
A little more to the point, I think Yudkowsky is seriously underestimating the information/coordination costs associated with finding the next Steve Jobs. Maybe one does exist—in fact, I would say I am pretty sure one does—but how do you find them? How do you get them interested? How do you verify they can do what Steve did, without handing them control of a trillion dollar company? How can you convince everyone else that they should trust and support new-Steve’s decisions?
These seem like the more significant obstacles than just any new Steve existing at all.
(I also think the relevance is kind of strained.)
On specifically getting them interested: presumably, new-Steve-Jobs doesn’t want to come in and run someone else’s company, they want to start their own. You could pay them a lot of money, but if they really are Jobs, the opportunity cost of not starting their own is extremely high!