williamsae

Cross-posted from the Effective Altruism Forum, and edited slightly. Summary: The value of human problem-solving ability is the value that can be accumulated through abstraction of value (e.g. defining value in terms of money) and through the exchange of that abstraction. This value can be observed to be orders of magnitude higher than without human intelligence. The value of the problem-solving ability of a General Collective Intelligence is the value that can be accummulated through the abstraction of that abstraction of value (e.g. defining value in terms ability to generalize one process and to reuse it where it is applicable in other processes) and through the exchange of that abstraction. This value (and therefor the problem-solving ability of a GCI as well as it's capacity to solve existential risks) can be orders of magnitude higher still than possible for human intelligence. From the perspective of an approach called Human-Centric Functional Modeling (HCFM), which defines systems according to their function, the earth is an adaptive problem-solving system that functions to solve the problems posed by it's environment. As we'll see, this perspective is important in defining in the simplest possible way why human intelligence has been so impactful on the planet. And this approach is important in understanding how to fix that impact. From this functional modeling perspective, the earth can be defined in terms of a minimal (simplest possible) set of functions of the earth, and higher order interactions between those functions, to the limit of some order N that is reliably achievable without a new system of organization to govern those interactions. Biological life consists of all the Nth order interactions between those functions, where these interactions are higher order and therefore of greater complexity than reliably achievable without life. From the functional modeling perspective homeostasis is the process of seeking to sustain fitness to function, an