[dmrivers]

"This is important, if what we want to do is populate the cosmos with good experiences."

There is a concerning utilitarian maximizing attitude at the heart of this post, that what we want to do is tile the universe with computational boxes all simulating happy minds, and that this is the end goal of AI development and consciousness research.

So many moral schools would object to this perspective. I don't think the goal of humanity should be to tile the universe with black computing boxes simulating happy experiences.

[abound]

A more charitable take is that we shouldn't tile the universe with consciousnesses that are in constant, unending agony. Torment Nexus and all that.

[dmrivers]

True, I think the author would likely justify their work on that basis. I made this comment because I think a lot of utilitarians would bite the bullet and say once they are sure about the underlying functioning of consciousness, it's time to tile the universe with happy machines. I wanted to point this out as it's my belief that Utilitronium maximizers have a concerning influence on AI progress.