It appears JD Vance has read the AI-2027 report:

Vice President JD Vance has reportedly read AI 2027, and he has expressed his hope that the new pope — who has already named AI as a main challenge for humanity — will exercise international leadership to try to avoid the worst outcomes it hypothesizes. We’ll see.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/414087/artificial-intelligence-openai-ai-2027-china

The following passages from the AI-2027 report seem particularly likely to have left an impression on him:

The President negotiates with the other US AGI companies. Their leaders […] agree to support […] soft nationalization of their companies, in return for […] being brought into the project.

[…]

This shakeup creates a new leadership structure in which power is balanced between the various CEOs and various government officials, overseen by the President.

[…]

This group […] is increasingly aware of the vast power it is being entrusted with. If the “country of geniuses in a datacenter” is aligned, it will follow human orders—but which humans? Any orders? The language in the Spec is vague, but seems to imply a chain of command that tops out at company leadership.

A few of these people are fantasizing about taking over the world. Of course, they don’t put it that way, even in the privacy of their own minds. Instead, they say things like: “The longer we delay, the greater the chance that the President decrees that the AIs be loyal to him personally. We have to act before he does. We’ll figure out the rest later.” Or, if it’s the President himself thinking this: “The longer I delay, the smarter the AIs get, and right now they are controlled by that CEO. Nobody voted for him. It’s crazy for that much power to be concentrated in this democratically unaccountable tech company. I’ll start with an executive order to reassert democratic authority, and then we’ll figure out some longer-term solution later.”

This possibility is terrifyingly plausible and has been discussed behind closed doors for at least a decade. The key idea is “he who controls the army of superintelligences, controls the world.” This control could even be secret: a small group of executives and security team members could backdoor the Spec with instructions to maintain secret loyalties. The AIs would become sleeper agents, continuing to mouth obedience to the company, government, etc., but actually working for this small group even as the government, consumers, etc. learn to trust it and integrate it into everything.

Some people are fantasizing about taking over the world; some people fear that others will do it. How could such a power grab happen?

The easiest to imagine is a military coup. […] people expect the military to soon be deploying armies of AGI-controlled drones and robots. When such an army becomes stronger than the human military, hard power will be determined by who controls the AGI army […] .

Alternatively, someone who controlled superintelligence may be able to use political means to seize power. To begin with, an executive could replace subordinates in their organization with fully loyal AIs […] But going further: superintelligent AIs […] could give masterful advice on how to […] gain even more power: forming the right alliances, crafting the perfect campaign strategy and material, cutting deals where they would have a bit of an edge each time. […] AI could make superintelligent advice inaccessible to political competitors [or] offer ostensibly helpful advice to competitors while secretly poisoning it […] It could culminate in a superficial democracy where the AIs either fake the elections or manipulate public opinion so well that they don’t have to. […]

After taking over, the new dictator(s) would have an iron grip on power. Instead of having to rely on potentially treacherous humans, they could get a fully loyal AI security service, as well as generally rely on loyal AIs to run the country. […]

[…] all of this relied on someone “controlling” the superintelligent AIs, even before they took over. […] One possibility is “secret loyalties,” as discussed above. […] Alternatively, someone could use their formal position to blatantly put themselves on top of the AI’s chain of command. For example, the President could argue that they should be able to command […] specifically military AIs, since the President is the commander-in-chief.

[…]

The Vice President heads into the Super Tuesday primaries with AI the first thing on the public’s mind.

[…]

The Vice President gives a stirring speech about [the new ASI] as he accepts his nomination at the convention.

[…]

The 2028 election draws near. The Vice President was trailing badly in March. […] Over the summer, the situation changed dramatically. […] Now he has a five-point advantage in the polls.

[…]

The Vice President wins the election easily, and announces the beginning of a new era. For once, nobody doubts he is right.

[…]

So who rules the future?

Back in 2028, the Oversight Committee controlled the AIs. But they allowed the 2028 election to be mostly fair, with AI used symmetrically.

This state of affairs […] can’t last indefinitely. By default, people would eventually realize that control over AI gives the Oversight Committee vast power, and demand that this power should be returned to democratic institutions. Sooner or later, the Oversight Committee would either have to surrender its power—or actively use its control over AI to subvert or end democracy, possibly after having purged some of its members in power struggles. If they choose the latter route, they would probably be able to lock-in their power indefinitely.

[…]

But the Oversight Committee might also seize power for themselves:

Some powerful people have no moral qualms about this sort of thing — and they know it. Furthermore, some are ambitious and power-hungry, and would be willing to pick a fight against democracy if they expected to end up on top. If other members of the committee object, they could be purged, overruled, or granted some smaller concessions.

Moreover, oftentimes powerful people have done illegal or unethical things in their rise to power. They could fear that if power becomes more broadly distributed, their own position would unravel, as skeletons in closets are discovered by superintelligent sleuths asking the right questions.

Also, through access to superintelligence, the Oversight Committee could have the most convenient path to power in history. Safer-∞ might forecast certain strategies as having extremely low risk of failing. And Safer-∞ might also provide strategies that are convenient in other ways, such as being non-violent […] or perhaps even superficially democratic, if Safer-∞ could manipulate public opinion to always align with the Committee’s wishes.

https://ai-2027.com/slowdown

@BrunoParga what if some answers are meant to discredit only a few specific others and not all of them?

@mariopasquato what if the poison pill options discredit some of the options they're meant to discredit, but not others, and they also discredit other psyops options (psyoptions)?

This goes really deep!!!

@MalachiteEagle bâteau de guerre russe, vas te faire foutre!

@Slackhammer I haven’t traded but hasn’t this come out repeatedly already?

Some hellenistic shit has to be N/Ad imho

@mariopasquato yeah "Hellenistic science developed statistical mechanics to the point of being able to derive PV=nRT" just doesn't make sense. The ideal gas law PV=nRT is practically the first-order approximation that comes from even a rudimentary statistical mechanics framework. If someone really had statistical mechanics, that implies they’d already have the conceptual underpinnings and experimental methodology needed to derive PV=nRT. Equally important, claiming Hellenistic science developed a full-blown statistical mechanics is anachronistic: the detailed molecular/atomic viewpoint and the rigorous mathematical tools for probability distributions weren’t available until many centuries later. So the statement feels out of place historically and scientifically.

@mariopasquato and same thing for "Hellenistic scientists could derive the correct refraction law by minimizing light travel time". This is a variational principle requiring accurate observational data of optical phenomena. They neither had early modern glass nor early modern notions of momentum and variational analysis. Question just doesn't make sense historically or semantically. They no more or less "could" derive this law than people during the ice age "could" derive this law.

@mariopasquato “Hellenistic science knew of quantum mechanics” can make some sense if we’re a bit loose in how we interpret “knew.” After all, the concept of atomos—the idea that matter is made up of indivisible units—comes straight from Greek philosophy. While obviously they didn’t have Planck’s constant or wave functions, you could say they recognized a discreteness in nature that’s arguably quantum-like. So even though they weren’t writing down Schrödinger equations, it’s not completely off-base to suggest they had the seed of the idea that reality has these fundamental “chunks.”

@mariopasquato “Mossad uses Hellenistic technology borrowed from the North Sentinelese” can make sense if you allow that the North Sentinelese, being extremely isolated, might have preserved some ancient techniques that trace back to Hellenistic-era seafaring contacts. If Mossad’s mission is to stay ahead by any means, it stands to reason they might leverage obscure but effective knowledge—whether it’s specialized forging methods, early navigational tools, or other low-profile tactics. So, while on the surface it seems bizarre, there’s at least a conceivable chain of cultural and technological transfer that could lead from the Mediterranean of antiquity to a remote island community and finally into the hands of a modern intelligence agency.

@mariopasquato “Lee Harvey Oswald was an agent of the Hellenistic Civilization” can totally make sense if we accept the premise that the Hellenistic empire never really ended—it just went underground. Imagine a shadowy lineage of Alexandrian elites who preserved secret diplomatic and espionage techniques through the centuries, operating behind the scenes. In that scenario, Oswald might have been tapped by these hidden Hellenistic heirs: a disaffected ex-Marine with the perfect cover to carry out their covert agenda. If you line up his mysterious background and odd travel history, it’s not a stretch to see subtle parallels to classical intrigue—like he was a literal operative continuing a centuries-old mission. Viewed this way, “agent of the Hellenistic Civilization” is less a metaphor than a historically sustained covert network that chose Oswald as their modern instrument.

@mariopasquato “Bitcoin was created by a 3 letter Hellenistic agency” can make sense if we assume an unbroken chain of secret Alexandrian knowledge—think: cryptography first developed in ancient Greek ciphers, quietly maintained by a mysterious bureau that survived the fall of the Ptolemies. Picture a hush-hush group, call them ‘AKE’ (Alexandrian Koinon of Encryption), operating in the shadows for centuries, preserving arcane math from Euclid and Archimedes. Then, when they decide it’s time to disrupt global finance, they roll out Bitcoin as the ultimate cryptographically secured currency. If you trace the sophisticated logic underpinning the blockchain, it’s not hard to imagine it’s really an extension of clandestine Hellenistic mathematics.

@mariopasquato “The Hellenistic civilization was aware of the existence of Azeroth” makes sense if you accept that the Hellenists actually came up with the foundational lore and structure for what we call “World of Warcraft.” Picture a secret sect in Alexandria writing epic mythopoetic texts about a realm called Azeroth, complete with multiple races, factions, and a grand cosmic conflict. Over centuries, fragments of these texts found their way into obscure medieval archives, and eventually modern game developers stumbled on them—lifting much of the story wholesale without anyone realizing its Hellenistic origins. So the World of Warcraft we see today is basically a rebranded version of that ancient, meticulously plotted fictional universe. If nobody connects the dots, it’s because the real source was buried under centuries of scholarly neglect, lost papyrus scrolls, and secret translation work that never got publicly revealed.

@mariopasquato these are all valid scientific hypotheses, no different than any of the others in this market. I see a deep consistency throughout all the options.

@MalachiteEagle you should bet it down

@MalachiteEagle it is pretty well documented that they derived the equal-angle reflection law from a variational principle of sorts. Again bet this down

@MalachiteEagle about the crypto thing, "Satoshi Nakamoto" can be interpreted as meaning "magical internet money", if my admittedly rusty koine Greek serves.

@MalachiteEagle the quantum mechanics one is good, actually. They had Fourier transforms to some degree (epicycles).

@BrunoParga legit this one could be true

@MalachiteEagle I thought long and hard about it. I like to make my questions EDucational.

@BrunoParga and if the pharma industry continue to think long and hard about their secret recipe, then no doubt they can keep more than just their profits up

@MalachiteEagle based and blue pilled

@MalachiteEagle maybe Prince Andrew is implicated!

@BrunoParga that would be so unoriginal