Tim Lee: A society of cognitively impaired adults would collapse long before AGI arrives
binarybits · x · 2026-11-16
Part of a thread on the "8-year-olds ruling adults" analogy for AI control. Responding to Jess Riedel's hypothetical of an entire society of intellectually disabled adults scoring like normal N-year-olds, Tim Lee argues such a society could not exist: it would have descended into anarchy, and probably extinction, long before anyone with adult-level intelligence showed up. This supports skepticism that less intelligent humans could maintain long-term control over smarter AI.
More from AGI Musings
- Marcus snaps at critic: 'Bregman or people like him have contaminated your brain' — GaryMarcus · 2026-11-16
- Human oversight is broken: monitoring systems are themselves misaligned in correlated ways — davidmanheim · 2026-11-16
- Demis Hassabis says AI demands flipping education; satirist quips schools will teach 'artificial scarcity' — moultano · 2026-11-16
- Gary Marcus challenges dev: show symbols in your agent harness or you're confused — GaryMarcus · 2026-11-16
- Debate: Was Tool Calling an Unpredictable Leap, or Predictable Since 2022? — OwariDa · 2026-11-16
- Dean Ball: top AI models mode-collapse into 2020-era governance discourse — deanwball · 2026-11-16