Divided moral theories converge on postponing irreversible cosmic commitments

Evidence

But maybe all these competing moral theories, which diverge so dramatically in the long run, can find a surprising degree of common ground in how we should spend the present. “I think there’s plausibly a kind of convergent instrumental goal among all of them,” he says. “Which I call the Long Reflection. Which is just a period—really it might be very long! When you look at the actual scales, it’s like, Okay, we solve AI and so on. Maybe it’s millions of years where we’re not really doing anything. We’re staying relatively small—again, by cosmic standards, at least—and the primary purpose of what we’re doing is just trying to figure out what to value.” — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 1345

Categorization

• SEED: The Long Reflection is a striking concept for a piece on epistemic humility as a collective strategy.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 1345
• XREF: connects to: Choices between truth and ease shape life pathways. — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 633

Broader Connections

• Choices between truth and ease shape life pathways. #expands (0.55) — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 633