The TESCREAL Bundle: Eugenics and the Promise of Utopia through Artificial General Intelligence — Émile P. Torres and Timnit Gebru, First Monday (April 2024)
webA critical outside-looking-in perspective on AI safety culture from Timnit Gebru and Émile Torres; relevant for understanding ideological critiques of longtermism and EA-aligned AI safety movements, though contested by many within those communities.
Metadata
Summary
Torres and Gebru critique the ideological cluster they term 'TESCREAL' (Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, Longtermism), arguing these movements share eugenic roots and use AGI as a vehicle for utopian promises that risk marginalizing present-day populations. The paper contends that this ideological bundle disproportionately shapes AI safety and development discourse, embedding historically problematic assumptions about human optimization and population control into mainstream AI governance conversations.
Key Points
- •Coins the 'TESCREAL bundle' to describe seven overlapping techno-utopian ideologies that share philosophical and historical roots in eugenics.
- •Argues that longtermism and EA-influenced AI safety framing prioritizes speculative future humans over current marginalized populations.
- •Contends that AGI narratives within TESCREAL function as secularized eschatology, promising utopia while legitimizing harmful present-day tradeoffs.
- •Highlights how TESCREAL ideologies have gained outsized influence in AI labs and policy circles, shaping research priorities and governance debates.
- •Calls for critical scrutiny of the ideological assumptions embedded in mainstream AI safety and AGI discourse.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Longtermism's Philosophical Credibility After FTX | -- | 50.0 |
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