Thank you for bringing emphasis to the s-risks! I focus on suffering and oppression which are likely in the majority of future scenarios. In particular, the one I have not heard anyone else mention is this:
Life-extension will be used for unending torture by dictators, to threated and pressure their population. This will make them more powerful, without increasing the potency of democracies. At the same time, those dictators will become more paranoid and reactive, because their own henchmen keep trying to kill them just to get a promotion. Any in-fighting will be blamed on enemies, to bring the organization together. I expect they will normally resort to sabotage when they attack.
This does not seem like an ‘unlikely’ risk for centuries of suffering—rather, we seem to be barreling towards it with intention! Putin, Xi, Muhammad bin Salman, will all extend their lives as soon as they can, and their next targets will be whoever disobeyed, to ‘make an example of them’. I don’t see how we can realistically prevent these dictators from abusing life-extension for the purpose of immense suffering and the power it gives them.
If anyone would like to discuss this s-risk more, I am normally rebuffed by disbelief, while critical assessment of the actual behavior of these bad actors seems to warrant more attention. Xi harvests organs, and keeps people in detention camps, while Putin & MBS like to capture or poison enemies. I worry that too many of us are quick to assume: “it’ll never happen, even though it would give those leaders such an advantage.”
[[A musing on the topic from 2018, for the general readership: “Long Live the King” on Medium, under Anthony Repetto.]]
Thank you for bringing emphasis to the s-risks! I focus on suffering and oppression which are likely in the majority of future scenarios. In particular, the one I have not heard anyone else mention is this:
Life-extension will be used for unending torture by dictators, to threated and pressure their population. This will make them more powerful, without increasing the potency of democracies. At the same time, those dictators will become more paranoid and reactive, because their own henchmen keep trying to kill them just to get a promotion. Any in-fighting will be blamed on enemies, to bring the organization together. I expect they will normally resort to sabotage when they attack.
This does not seem like an ‘unlikely’ risk for centuries of suffering—rather, we seem to be barreling towards it with intention! Putin, Xi, Muhammad bin Salman, will all extend their lives as soon as they can, and their next targets will be whoever disobeyed, to ‘make an example of them’. I don’t see how we can realistically prevent these dictators from abusing life-extension for the purpose of immense suffering and the power it gives them.
If anyone would like to discuss this s-risk more, I am normally rebuffed by disbelief, while critical assessment of the actual behavior of these bad actors seems to warrant more attention. Xi harvests organs, and keeps people in detention camps, while Putin & MBS like to capture or poison enemies. I worry that too many of us are quick to assume: “it’ll never happen, even though it would give those leaders such an advantage.”
[[A musing on the topic from 2018, for the general readership: “Long Live the King” on Medium, under Anthony Repetto.]]