What a brilliant discussion! I had experienced the Moloch trap at many events, but never knew it had a name or theory. It seems to be at the root of all of our current environmental and political/economic dilemmas. Perhaps a fraternal twin of "the race to the bottom". Of course, positive feedback must be a good thing -- it's "positive", right?
I also listened to the Ted Talk. The idea, ‘the problem is NOT capitalism but rather Moloch’, meaning the problem is incentives, needs I think a future re-working or expansion to clarify the relationships and possibilities involving: for-profit, incentives, (rewards, punishments).
The purpose of ‘corporations’ is NOT to increase shareholder profit. ‘Corporations’ were created as an economic tool for the benefit of society.
Very interesting. Especially the poker angle and Ms. Boeree’s perspective and insights. Unfortunately, I had to give up reading because the responses were in desperate need of editing. A recording is verbatim of course but if you’re going to print the discussion for readers, editing is key. Perhaps next time…
And remember the Asilomar Conference in 1975 where the major biology scientists in the field intentionally slowed things down to set up principles for recombinant DNA work (gene engineering). These were scientists who in many cases were looking towards a Nobel prize and chose to draw up guidelines and placing research in the public domain.
So, the "precautionary principle" can be applied, but as noted in the interview, AI is being done not by academics/scientists but by companies that are out to make a buck as quickly as they can...
At some level, it all comes down to externalities and stakeholders. Letting AI go off the rails has a ton of externalities that those companies are not having to pay or take into account. As long as we allow companies to do that, the Moloch Trap will occur over and over (many other examples of this besides AI as well)
What a brilliant discussion! I had experienced the Moloch trap at many events, but never knew it had a name or theory. It seems to be at the root of all of our current environmental and political/economic dilemmas. Perhaps a fraternal twin of "the race to the bottom". Of course, positive feedback must be a good thing -- it's "positive", right?
I also listened to the Ted Talk. The idea, ‘the problem is NOT capitalism but rather Moloch’, meaning the problem is incentives, needs I think a future re-working or expansion to clarify the relationships and possibilities involving: for-profit, incentives, (rewards, punishments).
The purpose of ‘corporations’ is NOT to increase shareholder profit. ‘Corporations’ were created as an economic tool for the benefit of society.
Very interesting. Especially the poker angle and Ms. Boeree’s perspective and insights. Unfortunately, I had to give up reading because the responses were in desperate need of editing. A recording is verbatim of course but if you’re going to print the discussion for readers, editing is key. Perhaps next time…
And remember the Asilomar Conference in 1975 where the major biology scientists in the field intentionally slowed things down to set up principles for recombinant DNA work (gene engineering). These were scientists who in many cases were looking towards a Nobel prize and chose to draw up guidelines and placing research in the public domain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asilomar_Conference_on_Recombinant_DNA
So, the "precautionary principle" can be applied, but as noted in the interview, AI is being done not by academics/scientists but by companies that are out to make a buck as quickly as they can...
At some level, it all comes down to externalities and stakeholders. Letting AI go off the rails has a ton of externalities that those companies are not having to pay or take into account. As long as we allow companies to do that, the Moloch Trap will occur over and over (many other examples of this besides AI as well)