Anthropocene

Dear people who think s-risks are unlikely: My challenge to you: watch factory farming footage, then see if you’ve changed your mind.
Seriously. Go do it.

The factory farming video below I think will do a good job showing how the vast majority of mammalian life on this planet is experiencing reality.
I predict you’ll change your mind.

S-risks can happen.
They are happening!!!

We, humans, are a superintelligence compared to all other living beings (so far).
And we have created inescapable hell on earth for trillions of them!
Even the ones we love we buy and sell, kidnap from their mothers as children, and forcefully sterilize.
And this is what we do with our power
Because they’re dumber than us!
That’s the actual moral reasoning we use. “They’re dumb. They probably don’t experience pain like we do”
All day, every day, until they are slaughtered in literal honest to god gas chambers.

Factory farming is a moral crime against God’s creation & a disgusting practice https://t.co/91AMebIOc5

— E (@ElijahSchaffer) August 19, 2024

They have absolutely no hope of escape.
They are born because we create them, and then we torture them.
Because it’s pleasurable to us.
“Bacon tastes good” is all of the justification we need.

And AIs are likely to have humans in their values because we’ll put those values into them. Almost any value system we give AIs will include living humans.
But if we get the values wrong in some way, we could end up with inescapable hellscapes.

The lifespan of a cow can be more than 25 years. After 5-6 years of repeatedly being impregnated, forced to produce large quantities of milk, dairy cows are left exhausted, unable to keep up with demands, and are sent to the slaughterhouse to be killed for cheap meat. #Milkday 🥛 pic.twitter.com/bnaVe8Ckq8

— Herbiⓥore (@herbivore_club) January 11, 2020

You are much smarter than a cow.

(I know, I say the most flattering things)

In fact, you, my dear reader, are superintelligent compared to a cow.

There might be some weird cognitive ability that cows possess that humans are worse at, who knows. But overall, if you count up the ability to understand and control the environment and achieve our goals, humans are, with hardly any exception, smarter than cows.

One of the reasons most sci-fis are unrealistic is that they assume a plucky band of humans can always save the day.

The AIs are never that much smarter than humans.

But that’s not what it’s going to be like.

No matter how plucky the band of cows are, they can never overthrow humans.

So heartbreaking. This #cow knows what's coming for him and he didn't want to go. 😢

My heart breaks for him and every other animal who sees what's coming for them on the kill floors of slaughterhouses. 💔 pic.twitter.com/luJnA8lyHK

— John Oberg (@JohnOberg) May 10, 2024

We are cows who are about to build humans, and the cow scientists are saying “Don’t worry. We’ll be able to control these beings that are 1000x smarter than us. They’ll just find cows interesting, and we’ll give them cow values.”

We are currently the smartest animals on the planet, and that’s why we’re at the top of the food chain.

It’s not because we’re stronger or faster or have good body awareness.

And we’re about to build something far smarter than us and we don’t know how to control something like that.

We don’t trade with cows
We enslave cows
They are bought and sold.
They are not allowed to leave.
Their children are sold to the highest bidder with no consideration to their well-being.

This cow is so scared of being slaughtered that they're actually crying. 💔

RT if you agree that no animal should spend their final moments like this.

[video: Toronto Cow Save] pic.twitter.com/bAJawmecx4

— John Oberg (@JohnOberg) September 13, 2020

The people at the labs put above a 15% chance that once it’s far smarter than us, it will kill all of us.

Now, it could also cure all disease and create a post-scarcity society for all.

But it could also kill us all.

So let’s proceed with caution, goddammit.

Slowly and carefully.

Not “full speed ahead, we gotta do it before the out-group does it, oh no, I’m helpless in the face of market forces” BS.

The AI labs are playing Russian roulette with the whole world, and they can choose to stop.

The governments can choose to protect the public.

You can choose to do your part to get them to not risk your loved ones lives (link in comment for actions you can take)

Instead of sitting back with hopeless apathy, listening to the corporations saying “resistance is futile”, we can fight for Team Humanity, before it’s too late.