Comment by jameslk

Comment by jameslk 16 hours ago

3 replies

> if powerful AI is coming regardless, Anthropic believes it's better to have safety-focused labs at the frontier than to cede that ground to developers less focused on safety (see our core views).

It used to be that only skilled men trained to wield a weapon such as a sword or longbow would be useful in combat.

Then the crossbow and firearms came along and made it so the masses could fight with little training.

Democracy spread, partly because an elite group could no longer repress commoners simply with superior, inaccessible weapons.

onraglanroad 16 hours ago

None of that is historically accurate. Most soldiers were just ordinary untrained men.

And democracy spread because wealthy men wanted a say in how things were run, rather than just the upper classes, and then it expanded into working men with unions, and even women! Bugger all to do with weapons.

  • jameslk 5 hours ago

    > Most soldiers were just ordinary untrained men.

    It’s unclear what era or region you’re talking about, but during the High Middle Ages in Europe before democracy existed, which is what I was referring to, training depended on social standing. For knights, this was a career. Regardless, training is not that important when the weapons themselves were inaccessible. Easy access to easy to use weapons helped change bargaining power for the masses

    To be clear, this was not the only reason I claimed democracy spread. It’s partly why

    But anyway, give a few companies all the “powerful AI” I guess, for “safety”

skybrian 15 hours ago

It would be more accurate to say that there are rich people on both sides. For example, George Washington was the richest man in America at the time.