[ExI] discipline and consistency

[Keith Henson]

On Mon, Nov 17, 2025 at 5:10 AM John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:
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> On Sun, Nov 16, 2025 at 5:43 PM Keith Henson via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
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>> > I think an awful lot of voters knew they were voting for a criminal, and that did not deter them because they wanted a xenophobic criminal leader.
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> Yeah, they wanted a criminal leader even though one of the big issues was crime, and even though  the crime rate is much lower today than it was in the 1980s or 90s. Maybe they thought they'd be safer if the criminals were in the White House and not on the streets. But I don't think most voters wanted xenophobia to go as far as Canada or Denmark, and I don't think they wanted army troops wearing full battle gear patrolling American cities against the wishes of its governor, mayor and inhabitants.
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>> > The most consequential thing, even more significant than pardoning the Jan 6 mob, was disbanding any attempt at limiting the AI buildout.
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> Why would you want to limit the AI buildout?

I said it was consequential, not expressing any opinion about whether
it was desirable or not.  It is a highly mixed question.  The
negatives have been expressed by Eliezer.  The positives have been
discussed on this list since 1993.  My take is that it will happen
regardless, so we take our chances with the bad outcomes and get the
good sooner.  Of course, I could be utterly wrong.

> That would not limit the danger to the human race, the only thing that would accomplish is that China would be the one that builds the progenitor of MR. Jupiter Brain.

>> > It probably would not make much difference anyway.
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> I think our chances of coming out of the other side of the Singularity meat grinder in one piece will be slightly greater if the US not China builds the progenitor of MR. Jupiter Brain. Somebody somewhere is certain to build it, it's only a matter of time.
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While I agree with you, I don't think it will make a lot of difference
which culture builds AIs.  Again, I could be utterly wrong.

Keith
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>> > The next most consequential may be starting a war with some South American country.  (After talking about making war on Canada and Denmark.)
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> This would be a very good time to start a war with Venezuela, it would distract voters from the Epstein files. Speaking of that, just a few hours ago, after vigorously lobbying members of Congress for months to keep that file closed, the convicted felon suddenly reversed course by 180 degrees and now says Congress should vote to release the files. I think Jeffrey Epstein's best friend knew that despite his best efforts his lobbying effort had failed and that information was going to be made public, so he wanted to make it seem like it was his idea to do so.
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> John K Clark
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