This all feels so abstract.  Like, what have we lost by having too much faith in the PMK article? If I buy what you are pitching, what action should I take to more properly examine 'multi-principal/multi-agent AI'?  What are you looking for here?

Bummer.

Clippy POV

http://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/

The article about Slack is really good, thanks for linking.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/28/16367580/campaigning-doesnt-work-general-election-study-kalla-broockman

This is a pretty daunting takedown of the whole concept of political campaigning. It is pretty hilarious when you consider how much money, how much human toil, has been squandered in this manner.

"Or is it so obvious no one bothers to talk about it?"

Well, that's not it.

Humans are 'them'? Who are you actually trying to threaten here?

Certainly, self replicating robots will affect our survival. I'm not sure it will go in the way we want though.

The Second Machine Age -- > https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-second-machine-age-erik-brynjolfsson/1115780364

They are good training tasks.