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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023

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And when improvements in IQ get maxed out, they will look for ways to make personality more competitive. Reducing libido is a no-brainer, not only will it make him pay more attention in school, it will also make him less likely to get in trouble with HR.

I would say you're being insufficiently transhumanist. I doubt that in the 10-30 year period it would take for such genetic engineering to become commonplace, we wouldn't have cybernetic implants to perform arbitrary modification of the human mind.

Not to mention that schools and the like would be obsolete, assuming that education as we know it even has any purpose when transhumans/AGI can do everything faster and better, let alone with the sort of intellectual bandwidth mature BCIs can provide.

(And if I'm really putting on my techno-utopian hat, I envision such a society to not have much need for, spit, HR. Or men who can't find a better outlet for their libido than ogling breasts in the office.

Not that I wear that hat all that often, I'm personally resigned to dying ignominiously within 20 years, but if we don't Great Filter our own asses with AGI, then my kids are going to get the full package with whatever tech is available.)

I think that the AGI is far less probable than genetic engineering, even fairly advanced genetic engineering. Of course, both might happen, but genetic engineering will happen hella sooner.

Oh man, I'd love to bet against you on this, assuming you aren't just talking about polygenic embryo selection which already exists. AGI is almost here, probably less than a decade to go; I'd even give >50% odds of <5 years. Even if we had comprehensive genetic engineering available tomorrow, it'll take at least 15-20 years before it could start to affect the fabric of society.

(I'm not actually going to bet for various logistical reasons, but I'd love to.)

But I appreciate and agree with your concern about the prospect of personality adjustment conditioned on the availability of genetic engineering technology.