3 Answers from Robin Bryan Caplan By Bryan Caplan, Jun 14 2016 SHARE POST: Robin’s answers to my three questions: Let me emphasize yet again that I present myself in the book as an expert on facts, not on values, so my personal values should not be relevant to the quality of my book. The fact that you ask #3 suggests you seek an integral over the value of the entire future. In which case I guess I need to interpret #1 as no age of em or any form of AI ever appearing, and it is hard to interpret “hell” as I don’t know how many people suffer it for how long. But if 0 is the worst case and 10 is the best case, then humans continuing without any AI until they naturally go extinct is a 2, while making it to the em stage and therefore having a decent chances to continue further is a 5. Biological humans going extinct a year later is 4.9. This is as I expected and feared. Given Robin’s values, The Age of Em‘s disinterest in mankind makes perfect sense. But to be blunt, treating imminent human extinction as a minor cost of progress makes Robin’s other baffling moral views seem sensible by comparison. In practice, I’m sure Robin would be horrified to see robots wipe out everyone he knows. Why he sees no need to reconcile his near-horror with his far-optimism is a deep mystery to me. To be clear, I’m not even slightly worried about robots wiping out mankind. But if it happened, it would be the worst thing that ever happened, and an infinite population of ems would not mitigate this unparalleled disaster.
Jun 14 2016 Economic and Political Philosophy Deregulation, Voodoo, and Krugman Bryan Caplan Many of my friends wistfully contrast the great neoliberal Krugman of the 90s with the leftist ideologue Krugman of today. But both Krugmans are alive and well in 2016. A stark case: In "Notes on Brexit" (June 12, 2016), Krugman scoffs at the pro-growth power of deregulation: Pay no attention to claims that Bri... 9 Read More
Jun 14 2016 Price Controls What to Do about London Housing David Henderson Update below. James Jirtle, a long-time reader of Marginal Revolution, recently wrote Tyler Cowen and asked his views about what to do about high housing prices in London. Mr. Jirtle listed 11 proposed responses and asked which Tyler thinks "are likely to be effective." Tyler didn't answer with reference to any of the... 30 Read More
Jun 14 2016 Cost-benefit Analysis 3 Answers from Robin Bryan Caplan Robin's answers to my three questions: Let me emphasize yet again that I present myself in the book as an expert on facts, not on values, so my personal values should not be relevant to the quality of my book. The fact that you ask #3 suggests you seek an integral o... 5 Read More