democracy

Rob Wiblin @robertwiblin Even 'aligned AGI' naturally kills democracy and leads to oligarchy, or worse. That's the take of Anthropic's past alignment evals team lead, Prof @DavidDuvenaud. Once humans aren't needed to do jobs or serve in the military, to governments we look like "meddlesome parasites". With voters unable to contribute but engaged in incessant activism to extract resources from others – resources the country needs to avoid domination by rivals – the attraction of mass disenfranchisement could be overwhelming. In 2025 David co-authored "Gradual Disempowerment", which aimed to lay out this and many other political, economic, and cultural forces that could sideline ordinary people (and maybe all people) in the presence of machines that can cheaply do everything humans will do. Most controversially, David and colleagues believe that competitive forces will compel disempowerment, even if all those AIs are aligned and loyal to their users. I wasn't sure how much I believed this vision of how the future might play out, so I interviewed him for The 80,000 Hours Podcast to probe how well it holds up. He and I covered: [cut off]

Eloy Vera Beltrán 🦁🇦🇷 @EloyVeraBel · 1h This is a great book on how the Second Democracy of Athens reached an institutional equilibrium that overcame the populist and anarchic dynamics of the First. And it has game theory! [Embedded image: book cover, blue background with papyrus scroll imagery] "Creating a Constitution — Law, Democracy, and Growth in Ancient Athens" by Federica Carugati [author name partially cut off at bottom]

Aella ✓ @Aella_Girl [Subscribe] Getting into history stuff, I don't think I realized how fragile democracy is at its early stages. So many times people are like "fuck this monarchy/dictator shit, let's do a democracy" and then someone they don't like gets elected and they're like "wait not like that" and then they ignore or bend the rules to let them be the ones staying in power and then it's we're back to monarchy/dictator shit. 12:23 PM · Jan 19, 2026 · 17.6K Views 💬32 🔁13 ❤️316 🔖27 [share] Daryl ✓ @allvibesnoskill · 2h [Embedded image, book page]: CHAPTER XLII.—How easily Men become corrupted. In this matter of the decemvirate we may likewise note the ease wherewith men become corrupted, and how completely, although born good and well brought up, they change their nature. For we see how favourably disposed the youths whom Appius gathered round him became towards his tyranny, in return for the trifling benefits which they drew from it; and how Quintus Fabius, one of the second decemvirate and a most worthy man, blinded by a little ambition, and misled by the evil counsels of Appius, abandoning his fair fame, betook himself to most unworthy courses, and grew like his master. Careful consideration of this should make those who frame laws for commonwealths and kingdoms more alive to the necessity of placing restraints on men's evil appetites, and depriving them of all hope of doing wrong with impunity.