The Plan of Salvation as a Posthuman Solution to the Intelligence Control Problem

McKay Moore

I don’t know if I’m allowed to have two laptops up here, but I’m doing it. So The power of computation. Awesome.

McKay Moore

So this presentation is based on a paper that Dan and I wrote. And then, let’s see. Oh there.

McKay Moore

For the sake of this talk, I’m going to be using the term post-Human in a slightly different way. This term is typically used to describe humans at some future date that have transcended parts of the human condition such that they are no longer unambiguously human. This can include dramatic changes in intelligence, in lifespan and health, in capability and in being and embodiment itself.

McKay Moore

Before I describe this difference in definition, I’ll give a little theological context. Mormon theology regarding the nature of salvation is quite unique among Christian groups. The nature of the Mormon story is this. Gods are, gods create sentient beings who develop to become gods, and then those new gods create sentient beings. The theology of Mormonism is a never ending cycle of creation, and is captured well in this famous couplet, as man is now, God once was. As God is, man may be.

McKay Moore

In this context, I’m using the term post-human to describe the state of any sentient being that has achieved a type of existence that we would call a post-human one. Meaning, I’m describing all the gods that came before us as post-human, despite the fact that they wouldn’t share our same biology.

McKay Moore

Now with that context, I’ll introduce the control problem and how the plan of salvation is a solution, a post-human solution to it. The control problem is the issue of aligning nation intelligence with the values and goals of the developer. The problem has two main components. One, the developers must control the intelligence enough to be able to instill their values into it. And two, the developers must understand their values enough to instill them.

McKay Moore

The control problem humanity currently faces is one of controlling artificial intelligence. If intelligence equals power, and artificial intelligence can become more intelligent than humans individually, and eventually more intelligent than humanity as a whole, it is very important that artificial intelligence is aligned with human values.

McKay Moore

Now this doesn’t mean that these systems will have our values one-to-one. In fact, it’s very likely the case that sufficiently intelligent machines will transcend our values. much like how we would view the values of the past as primitive forms of our value systems today.

McKay Moore

A lot of thought has gone into the control problem, and approaches to resolving it fall into primarily two camps of methods. capability control methods, and behavioral control methods. These categories and methods come from Nick Bostrom’s work on the control problem in his book, Superintelligence.

McKay Moore

The capability methods are focused on slowing the rate of growth of developing intelligence, and the behavioral control methods are focused on Ensuring that the intelligence acts in appropriate ways. It’s important to note that capability control is a temporary measure. Unless you intend to have the intelligence stunted forever, you must effectively teach it to behave appropriately. That is, it must develop wisdom.

McKay Moore

I’ll briefly describe each of these methods here. Among the capability let’s see. Yeah, among the capability control methods, we have Incentive, stunting, and tripwires or boxing, incentive, stunting, and tripwires. Boxing involves containing the developing intelligence in physical and informational barriers. Incentive methods involve Placing intelligence in constrained environments or actions toward their goals instrumentally work towards the goals of the developers. And the stunting includes limiting the hardware of the intelligence or intentionally weakening it in other ways, and tripwire Involve setting up tests that will alert the developers if the intelligence has breached barriers put in place.

McKay Moore

Among behavioral control methods, we have domestication, direct specific direct specification, indirect normativity, and augmentation. Direct specification includes explicitly describing goal states or rule systems. Domesticity involves giving the intelligence the goal of limiting its own capabilities. Indirect normativity involves teaching the process of arriving at values and standards, and then having the intelligence adopt those standards. And lastly, Augmentation involves taking an intelligence that has a sufficient value system and increasing its intelligence and capabilities such that it becomes super intelligent.

McKay Moore

Just to kind of bring this point home about the importance of the control problem, I’m going to sort of give you a picture of why this is an issue. So if we imagine a society of gods, these gods have immense power and capability and intelligence. So decentralization of power grows, right? Individuals are incredibly highly capable. And in this paradigm, there’s an interesting sort of asymmetry between offense and defensive measures. So to put plainly, it’s easier to launch nukes than it is to defend against them well, right? And so if this asymmetry between violence and defense holds, that means that a society of gods is incredibly dangerous to itself, right? And so it it turns out to be the case that unless you believe in the wisdom of each of those individuals in that they won’t harm you or others, you either increase in wisdom or you go extinct. There’s no in-between, right?

McKay Moore

And so because of that, I argue that this plan of salvation is a solution to that intelligence control problem. If we are to become gods, we must become more wise.

McKay Moore

The development of life on earth from singular cellular organisms to humans constitutes an intelligence explosion. which continues from this point onward, including both humanity’s own developing intelligence and the intelligences humanity may create. From this perspective of post-humanity, or the gods, we are a control problem. Now, the nature of post-humanity’s control problem and humanity’s control problem are different, but only in that humanity and post-humanity are in different states.

McKay Moore

The plan of salvation is a description of the progression of intelligence from its nation form through rapid increases in intelligence and capability to godhood or post-humanity. Because of these things, there are connections with the methods that I previously discussed. I’ll focus on just two.

McKay Moore

The first is augmentation. As stated before, this involves taking an intelligence that is wise enough and increasing its intelligence and capabilities such that it becomes super intelligence. Within the plan of salvation, these end states here, celestial, terrestrial, and celestial kingdoms, are called degrees of glory. And if The glory of God is intelligence, and glory is being used in the same sense here, then these degrees of glory are degrees of intelligence. This intelligence is not meted out according to indiscriminate or arbitrary whims of Mother Nature as it is today, but fairly and equitably according to this principle. The intelligence is given to those who desire it and those who authentically commit to use it wisely. This is a clear case of augmentation where increased intelligence and capability is given to those who possess a sufficiently capable value system.

McKay Moore

The second connection to the control methods is essentially an amalgamation of a few. Direct specification, indirect normativity, and incentive. These methods are found in our mortal life now. They emerge from the various wisdom traditions humanity has that call us towards increased wisdom, teach us how to act, and place us in systems where the actions towards our goals instrumentally further the goals of our developers.

McKay Moore

Sources to this end abound. Prince Arjuna’s explorations instigated by the prospects of impending war, David’s Bathsheba dilemma Muhammad’s cave revelations, Jesus’ invitation to align our goals and actions with love for ourselves, fellow agents, and God. Joseph Smith’s dictum to teach truth and promote agency and individuality, and multitudes more from even more diverse sources.

McKay Moore

These sources help us to increase in wisdom such that humanity doesn’t self-annihilate, that we may continue to sow our efforts and reap the benefits of the advancements of technology, that we might solve the problems of the natural world. that we might understand the mysteries of the universe, and that we might continue in the great chain of creation, growing in capability and in power and in wisdom and in intelligence. For the glory of God is intelligence.

McKay Moore

These things I pray. Thank you.