[ExI] The Race to AGI is inevitable

[Ben Zaiboc]

On Thursday, 11 June 2026 at 17:00, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 11:21 PM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> On 11/06/2026 05:54, Samantha Atkins wrote:
>>>
>>> If humans cannot sufficiently overcome parts of our evolutionary psychology in order to act more rationally then I fear for our species. Environment change drives evolutionary change. Our environment via technology has changed so much that we must become different than we evolved to be in order to meet the current and coming challenges. This is the Great Filter.
>>
>> That's probably the most convincing Great Filter I've ever heard of.
>>
>> The disparity between the constant speed of evolution and the accelerating speed of technological progress is something that will apply to any civilisation that arises from biology, no matter how alien.
>
> Evolution isn't that constant. In recent historical times, the Industrial revolution, there was a strong selection for accumulating wealth or rather the psychological traits for wealth. The reason was that the wealthy had far more surviving children than the poor. The children of the poor died in the frequent famines or of disease that kills the undernourished. That selection affected much of Europe though the best studied is the UK.
>
> There was no upper limit on wealth, the more you had, the more likely your kids survived. So we have a segment of the population who descended from this segment who are never satisfied with how much wealth they accumulate. The expectation that AI will make people wealthy is currently driving the rapid advance.
>
> Keith

True, but that doesn't invalidate the point that evolution is much slower than technical innovation, and falling farther behind with each year.

---
Ben
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