[extropy-chat] SIAI: Donate Today and Tomorrow

[Hal Finney]

I don't see why you can't tell people your AI will give special favors to
those who donate.  How far do you think the Christians would have gotten
if they'd said that God would put *everyone* into heaven, whether they
were Christian or not?  Nowhere.  Even if that were God's actual plan
(it sounds like a mighty Christian thing to do), they wouldn't tell
people that.  Otherwise nobody would have any incentive to behave,
plus the religion wouldn't have been successful.

So with the Friendly AI, why wouldn't it reward the people who made it
possible?  Repaying debts seems like a Friendly thing to do.  And if it
owed its existence to people who made contributions on the expectation
that they would get a reward, a decent person would indeed reward them.
We should be able to ask the same of the Friendly AI.

The monument sounds nice, at least if it's got a lot of gold and diamonds
and stuff, and if it's really big.  I'm not dissing the monument, it's
better than nothing.  But come on, this AI could do a little better
than a monument, don't you think?  After all, the thing is supposed
to be more or less omnipotent, right?  It wouldn't seem like any great
difficulty to throw a few bones to the people who made it possible, saved
the human race and ensured the future happiness of the entire universe.
I'm not saying it has to make anyone else suffer or anything, but some
extra reward to the Chosen Few would seem possible and appropriate.

Anyway, I did make a small donation, even though I found your essay a
little condescending and insulting.  But I think you should seriously
consider the possibility that the AI would be willing to reward
contributors.  I don't see anything in Friendliness that would rule
it out.  You can bet the Raellians wouldn't get anywhere if they said
that *everybody* would get to go on the UFO.  As you note, a little
personal reward can go a long way.

Hal