[ExI] AGI development and human extinction risk

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 21/03/2026 19:16, Keith Henson wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 21, 2026 at 7:37 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>> On 21/03/2026 12:38, Keith Henson wrote:
>> snip
>> "There has never been any reproductive disadvantage to having more wealth (or firewood)."
>>
>> I don't think that's exactly true. We (in common with many other mammals) have a tendency to punish those who take more than their fair share.
> I suppose so, but I can't think of an example.  Got one?
>
>> This is probably older and stronger than the 'unlimited accumulation' trait, which might be unique to humans.
> I was about to say this was post-agriculture, but I remembered reading
> about a cache of a dozen Clovis points that was found a few years ago.
> In most natural examples, you can't accumulate stuff because it
> decays, or, like grass, is consumed. A few animals do build up stores
> of things like nuts.
>
>> And there's probably a tendency to avoid this punishment by refraining from the unfair behaviour, even if you'd like to.
> Examples would help.  I can't think of any disadvantages of having wealth.

I used to be an avid reader and collector of the 'New Scientist' magazine, for many years, but in the last few years, I came to realise that they are no better than any other 'popular science' rag, mainly as a result of their increasing willingness to run stories on pseudoscience like cold fusion and reactionless drives. I've slowly been getting rid of them for a while now (and freeing up quite a bit of room), reading them as I go, naturally. Anyway, it's in that magazine that I read not long ago about this phenomenon of various primates showing this 'fairness' trait, to the extent that monkeys would reject a reward if it was less desirable than the reward another monkey was getting, as well as other behaviour showing displeasure at various 'unfair' situations. Unfortunately that issue was binned a little while ago, so I can't quote a reference.

The last thing, about "a tendency to avoid this punishment by refraining from the unfair behaviour..." is just speculation on my part.

-- 
Ben