Thanks for the post! Key that we’re talking about the far future and developing this debate in a way that is easier to access for the skeptical majority ;-)
I fear that the ‘utopian scenarios’ are just so far from what most people would consider places with moral value. I fear that we aren’t making the effort to properly understand people’s value objections to these scenarios, and are writing it off as irrational commitment to what people are familiar with when actually there are some common sense feelings about moral value that are worth digging deeper about.
I’m new to these types of online discussions and would bet that some of you know where these fears / common sense moral objections to the types of scenario under your ‘utopia’ heading are addressed—can you point me in the right direction please?
Side question—there are many more ways super-dictatorships could arise with existing technology. Although it might not be absolute power it’s probably an equilibrium that’s hard to recover from (although a unified global state would be interesting in terms of managing wealth inequality and global movement etc.). Do you restrict yourself to looking at absolute power because then we’re pretty sure it wont change again?
For me, the meta-point that we should focus on steering into better scenarios was a more important goal of the post than explaining the actual scenarios. The latter serve more as examples / food for thought.
Regarding objections to Utopian scenarios, I can try to address them if you state the objections you have in mind. :)
Regarding dictatorships, I indeed focused on situations that are long-term stable since I’m discussing long-term scenarios. A global dictatorship with existing technology might be possible but I find it hard to believe it can survive for more than a couple of thousand years.
Thanks for the post! Key that we’re talking about the far future and developing this debate in a way that is easier to access for the skeptical majority ;-)
I fear that the ‘utopian scenarios’ are just so far from what most people would consider places with moral value. I fear that we aren’t making the effort to properly understand people’s value objections to these scenarios, and are writing it off as irrational commitment to what people are familiar with when actually there are some common sense feelings about moral value that are worth digging deeper about.
I’m new to these types of online discussions and would bet that some of you know where these fears / common sense moral objections to the types of scenario under your ‘utopia’ heading are addressed—can you point me in the right direction please?
Side question—there are many more ways super-dictatorships could arise with existing technology. Although it might not be absolute power it’s probably an equilibrium that’s hard to recover from (although a unified global state would be interesting in terms of managing wealth inequality and global movement etc.). Do you restrict yourself to looking at absolute power because then we’re pretty sure it wont change again?
Hi Tom, thx for commenting!
For me, the meta-point that we should focus on steering into better scenarios was a more important goal of the post than explaining the actual scenarios. The latter serve more as examples / food for thought.
Regarding objections to Utopian scenarios, I can try to address them if you state the objections you have in mind. :)
Regarding dictatorships, I indeed focused on situations that are long-term stable since I’m discussing long-term scenarios. A global dictatorship with existing technology might be possible but I find it hard to believe it can survive for more than a couple of thousand years.
Good points. Thanks. I was actually looking for objections rather than having them. Will illustrate my personal responses if I get time.