To think about:

This essay is relatively brief, but its theme extremely large: how to manage the development of technology and society, in the near to mid-term future, in such a way as to maximize the odds of a positive long-term future for the universe.

My conclusions are uncertain, but bold. I believe that the era of humanity as the ?Kings of the Earth? is almost inevitably coming to an end. Unless we bomb or otherwise destroy ourselves back into the Stone Age or into oblivion, we are going to be sharing our region of the universe with powerful AI minds of one form or another. Potentially depending on decisions we make in the near or moderately near future, this may or may not lead to a fundamental alteration in the nature of conscious experience in our neck of the woods: a Transcension. And the dangers to humanity may be significant ? an issue that must be very carefully considered.

I conclude that there are two strong options going forward, which I associate with the catch-phrases ?AI Buddha? and ?AI Big Brother.?

Link (via Vortex Egg).