Something I’m enjoying doing is using Claude (Anthropic’s equivalent to ChatGPT) to summarise podcasts, books and in this case an article I keep hearing about but never completed reading.
Scott Alexander posted the Meditations on Moloch article in 2014 and the Game B community, especially people like Daniel Schmachtenberger has been talking about multi-polar traps and sense-making since then.
—— Claude v3.0 (Opus) summary:
This is a thought-provoking and profound piece that touches on some big questions about human civilization, values, technology and the future. I’ll do my best to provide a high-level summary of the key points, but I would encourage you to read the full article if you have a chance, as it contains a lot of nuance and insight that is hard to capture in a short summary.
The central idea is that there are powerful forces and incentives that push civilization towards bad outcomes, even when no individual wants those outcomes. The author frames this in terms of a “Moloch” figure that demands sacrifice and bad behavior.
Some key examples of these “multipolar traps” that are discussed:
- Arms races between nations
- Competitive dynamics between firms that lead to poor treatment of workers and damage to the environment
- Evolved biological incentives that no longer serve our values
- Ideological and political races to the bottom
The concerning thing is that as technology grows more powerful, the potential danger of these traps increases. Advanced technologies could lead to terrible outcomes if not very carefully managed.
The author suggests the only way out is to create a singleton superintelligent AI that is imbued with human values and has the power to prevent these destructive forces. This is an ambitious but perilous proposal.
The article covers these ideas in much more depth, with vivid examples and poetic language. While heavy and sobering, it is a rewarding read for those interested in the trajectory of human civilization. The ideas are speculative but the core concerns seem important to grapple with. I’d recommend reading it in full if these topics interest you and you can find the time.
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Side note: Scott Alexander is now posting to the Astral Codex Ten substack https://www.astralcodexten.com/
I also asked Claude to give me a description of Moloch for Midjourney and got:
A towering, menacing bronze idol with the head of a bull, seated on a throne of gears, industrial machinery, and weapons. The idol has fiery eyes and smoke pouring from its nostrils. Thousands of tiny human figures are gathered around the base of the throne, some worshipping the idol, others being crushed by the gears or cast into flames. The scene is set against a bleak, dystopian cityscape with smokestacks and brutalist buildings looming in the background under an ominous red sky.
