1 Comment

It's so weird that people will argue about AI/AGI being the great filter, when it seems pretty obvious that resource extraction is the more clear and present existential threat. The idea of natural resources as legal entities shows up in the work of Canadian sci-fi author and futurist, Karl Schroeder, as well as on his Substack, Unapocalyptic, and the concept is pretty interesting, but these deodands, as he describes them, seem to hinge on advances in AI beyond our current capacity, at least as they are described in his novel Stealing Worlds. I'd definitely recommend the read if you enjoy science fiction. As implied by the title of his newsletter, though, part of his project revolves around imagining better possible futures, so it makes sense there's a certain amount of techno solutionism. Which is perfectly fine for a sci-fi author and futurist, but probably a bit too optimistic if you're a jurist.

Expand full comment