-[TODO—
- * need to figure out how to be more concrete about harms ... https://www.readthesequences.com/Entangled-Truths-Contagious-Lies
- * This is a drastic measure: consider all the costs of deleting history
- * The actual explanation turns out to be incredibly casual—"As long as they were doing that anyways": the assumption that the hoi polloi are better off not knowing where they came from isn't argued for at all
- * Doylist interpretation makes sense (Keltham encountering a mideval monarchy is more interesting if he doesn't know what a Queen is), but if it's that kind of universe, what's with the comments about dath ilan being superior to Earth? Topia-for-storytelling shouldn't be hailed as a eutopia
- * 1984 https://www.abhafoundation.org/assets/books/html/1984/162.html https://www.abhafoundation.org/assets/books/html/1984/103.html
+In at least one case, the text depicts dath ilan as suffering practical consequences from its ignorance: a discussion of the eliezera's low happiness levels is cut short with ["How'd it happen? Nobody knows, at this point, they screened their history."](https://glowfic.com/replies/1812613#reply-1812613) (Generally, knowing how something happened is useful for figuring out how to remediate it.) Realistically, we can only surmises that there are many other cases where knowing history would be useful that the narrator hasn't gotten around to telling us.
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+Given the costs, what could possibly justify the history screen, in an advanced Society that otherwise seems to value knowledge? A fantasy author could easily an invent an answer: maybe a psychic plague that spread through memories such that the infected must be not just physically quarantined, but forgotten. Medianworld authors have a tougher time insofar as we construe their genre as hard science fiction. Psychic plagues aren't real. What could _realistically_ justify the history screen?
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+The answer the text gives leaves something to be desired. In "But Hurting People Is Wrong", we learn of the birth of modern dath ilan, when the Keepers noticed the AGI alignment problem and propose strict policy measures aimed at surviving the challenge.
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+For one, dath ilan's eugenics program is to optimize for intelligence even more than it already does. That makes sense: smarter alignment researchers have a better shot at solving the problem.
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+For another, restrictions on the manufacture of computers are imposed. That makes sense: if computer hardware were too capable and easily available before alignment researchers had the [serial time](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FS6NCWzzP8DHp4aD4/do-earths-with-slower-economic-growth-have-a-better-chance) to think the problem through, that would increase the risk of accidentally unleashing an unaligned intelligence explosion.
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+For another, digital surveilance is imposed. That makes sense: Governance would want to know about any rogue AGI projects, so they can be shut down by force.