The story of Ziz LaSota & her "death cult" is long & twisted, but it starts w/in the Bay Area “Rationalist” community. Speaking in extremely broad terms: the Rationalists believe in using reason, logic, & evidence to improve understanding of the world. This is, in most znews (Ziz news) stories, all you’ll hear about them. The true depths of Rationalist belief are… murkier, sure; but well worth exploring before we dive into Ziz & her exploits.
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The Rationalists are a group of mostly-white, mostly-male, typically highly well-educated ppl who mostly work in tech & finance. They spend a lot of time dreaming of how they can “save the world”.
In their world-saving dreams, they overwhelmingly focus on hypothetical long-term risks to "humanity", elevating these above short-term "concerns" such as housing, healthcare, or environmental justice. There's nothing *wrong* w/ long-term thinking; but this group doesn’t give much thought to how, w/ all their $ & education, they could tangibly benefit the struggling ppl of today.
Instead, they overwhelmingly give much thought to one belief: that the *greatest* threat to global wellbeing is... the development of malevolent, supersmart AI.
They have some thought experiments abt this which are tbh quite convincing— & it's not like you need thought experiments to imagine the risks of supersmart- let alone ruthless- robots running our planet! It's somewhat a question of proportion… but, I guess, there can’t be anything *wrong* w/ one subgroup of ppl choosing to keep their eyes on this?
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Here is where the murkiness begins.
Many Rationalists hold that this supersmart AI could emerge w/in our lifetimes— maybe in a few decades. It is therefore, chez the Rationalists, of mind-bending urgency to avoid AI which might be “misaligned” w/ human welfare.
They tend to describe such entities in apocalyptic terms, akin to “demons” or evil gods. They argue that, if we fail to design AI properly, the result could be worse than human extinction. The resulting AI could create a vast universe of suffering.
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…On the other hand, many Rationalists— who, again, are largely tech workers— believe in the possibility for supersmart & benevolent AI— let’s call this “angelic” AI.
Angelic AI, they say, could solve nearly all human problems, & create a utopia of which they, the Rationalists, may be masters.
In this utopia, they may be able to live forever. They may be given total control over their consciousness, or merge w/ AI to achieve godlike intelligence. New forms of intelligence may come into being: vast hiveminds, or sthng never-before-imagined.
The Rationalists predict they may also gain total control over their physical forms— redesigning their bodies at will, shape-shifting into animals, creating new senses, or existing in purely digital realities.
Many Rationalists expect this to happen w/in their lifetimes. Others believe it may take a bit longer— but that angelic AI could easily be put to use reviving their minds and/or bodies.
Angelic AI might do almost anything:
It might allow them to experience time in nonlinear ways, or to exist in multiple places at once.
It might guide them to colonize the universe, engineering new planets, stars, & physical laws as they require.
If our world is a simulation— which many Rationalists believe it could be— angelic AI might uncover a way to “break out”, & venture into higher levels of existence— or, if they prefer, it could design for each Rationalist their own *personal* reality simulation, in which to live out their (indefinite) days.
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Angelic AI could also reprogram human suffering. It could eliminate pain, trauma, & unwanted emotions, while allowing our Rationalists to feel always-motivated or always-happy.
In such a utopia, conflict, misunderstanding, & the oh-so-many behaviors & traits which they deem “irrational” could all be avoided.
Perfect communication & coordination would be allowed to reign.
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