[ExI] Conscientious objections

[Anders Sandberg]

On 17/11/2012 09:16, Max More wrote:
>  Things change. Go back a a few centuries, and it was right to think 
> that democracy was not feasible at that time.

I think this is a key realisation. Some political systems require 
cultural or technological preconditions that take time (and effort!) to 
develop.

I was writing up a fairly vanilla anarcho-capitalist private law system 
for a roleplaying game recently, and I realized that the thing that made 
it sound plausible was that a lot of the interactions happened between 
software rather than people - the classic idea of arbitration between 
PPL companies would simply be too cumbersome without AI and fast 
lawyerware. Once they come inte existence, this particular system jumps 
from infeasible to an option.

Same thing with parliamentary democracy and printing presses. Which 
makes me wonder what systems we have not even imagined that are possible 
thanks to mere Internet.

> I do think (contrary to my younger self) that some collective goods 
> and free rider problems cannot be solved TODAY and so cannot call 
> myself a true libertarian, but I remain supportive of that as an ideal 
> and hold out hope that we can eventually make that an achievable form 
> of society. In the meantime, certainly we could move a huge distance 
> in that direction.

Libertarianism as the limit as technology makes the world as 
low-friction and rational as possible? Hmm, limit libertarianism has a 
nice assonance.


-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University