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I've been thinking a lot about the history of moral development recently, particularly the acceleration it has seen. Some byproduct of the industrial revolution (increased communication and travel?) has led to a race in moral improvement to match that of technology. We're extending what we define as human faster and faster. Which is great, but...
The more I really think about issues of moral development, the less I can identify with the past. 200 years ago was 1807. Nations openly, proudly went to war to build empires and capture resources. You could buy and sell other people. Democracy was in its rudest of beginnings, limited to the rich and the white. You could travel to any number of frontiers and spend a weekend killing natives for fun. Everyone alive was an absolute savage, a barbarian.
But how will I look in 200 years? The scary thing about exponential curves is that the farther you go, the more change there is. From the vantage point of 2207, I might end up looking a lot closer to the people of 1807 than to their own enlightened selves. How am I currently a bigot, and don't even realize it? What am I casually saying/writing/doing today that will cause them to shudder in horror?
The moral Singularity has already happened, and will continue to happen as we ride the curve upwards. We're the orphans of history, with an ever-decreasing pool of suitable role-models from the past, and an ever-increasing threat of hostile rejection from the future. From here on out, we're on our own.
The more I really think about issues of moral development, the less I can identify with the past. 200 years ago was 1807. Nations openly, proudly went to war to build empires and capture resources. You could buy and sell other people. Democracy was in its rudest of beginnings, limited to the rich and the white. You could travel to any number of frontiers and spend a weekend killing natives for fun. Everyone alive was an absolute savage, a barbarian.
But how will I look in 200 years? The scary thing about exponential curves is that the farther you go, the more change there is. From the vantage point of 2207, I might end up looking a lot closer to the people of 1807 than to their own enlightened selves. How am I currently a bigot, and don't even realize it? What am I casually saying/writing/doing today that will cause them to shudder in horror?
The moral Singularity has already happened, and will continue to happen as we ride the curve upwards. We're the orphans of history, with an ever-decreasing pool of suitable role-models from the past, and an ever-increasing threat of hostile rejection from the future. From here on out, we're on our own.
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I think in 2207, or very likely even 2075, people will look back at today and think we were savages because of killing off 100,000 people a year with guns, letting children starve across much of the world, burning millions of tons of coal and oil, self-destructive things like that, which, again, the vast majority of people are not actively involved in doing.