'Humans as happy dogs': a debate on autonomy under superintelligence
zetalyrae · x · 2026-11-13
A thread debating whether humans end up as pets to superintelligent AI.
- Jacob Newman argues the positive vision is hard to articulate because in the extreme case the future simply won't be ours: many dogs live in a relative utopia thanks to the society we built, happy and fat, yet the world doesn't belong to them — they take no part in planning or major decisions, even ones that deeply affect them. Faced with genuine superintelligence (not today's models), we become the happy dogs.
- He sketches one plausible path that avoids humans becoming AI pets (the excerpt cuts off there).
- notcatra quote-tweets to say the idea of being reduced to a "happy dog" is fundamentally distasteful, and a future stripping humanity of autonomy, freedom and independence is not a good one.
Related event: Will Superintelligence Turn Humans Into 'Happy Dogs'?(2 posts)→
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