The Nonlinear Library LW - Meditations on Mot by Richard Ngo
Dec 4, 2023
13:20
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Meditations on Mot, published by Richard Ngo on December 4, 2023 on LessWrong.
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an angel!
Holy the lone juggernaut! Holy the vast lamb of the middleclass! Holy the crazy shepherds of rebellion! Who digs Los Angeles IS Los Angeles!
Holy New York Holy San Francisco Holy Peoria & Seattle Holy Paris Holy Tangiers Holy Moscow Holy Istanbul!
Holy time in eternity holy eternity in time holy the clocks in space holy the fourth dimension holy the fifth International holy the Angel in Moloch!
Footnote to Howl
Scene: Carl and Allen, two old friends, are having a conversation about theodicy.
Carl: "Let me tell you about the god who is responsible for almost all our suffering. This god is an ancient Canaanite god, one who has been seen throughout history as a source of death and destruction. Of course, he doesn't exist in a literal sense, but we can conceptualize him as a manifestation of forces that persist even today, and which play a crucial role in making the world worse. His name is M-"
Allen: "-oloch, right? Scott Alexander's god of coordination failures. Yeah, I've read
Meditations on Moloch. It's an amazing post; it resonated with me very deeply."
Carl: "I was actually going to say
Mot, the Canaanite god of death, bringer of famine and drought."
Allen: "Huh. Okay, you got me. Tell me about Mot, then; what does he represent?"
Carl: "Mot is the god of sterility and lifelessness. To me, he represents the lack of technology in our lives. With technology, we can tame famine, avert drought, and cure disease. We can perform feats that our ancestors would have seen as miracles: flying through the air, and even into space. But we're still so so far from achieving the true potential of technology - and I think of Mot as the personification of what's blocking us.
"You can see Mot everywhere, when you know what to look for. Whenever a patient lies suffering from a disease that we haven't cured yet, that's Mot's hand at work. Whenever a child grows up in poverty, that's because of Mot too. We could have flying cars, and space elevators, and so much more, if it weren't for Mot.
"Look out your window and you see buildings, trees, people. But if you don't see skyscrapers literally miles high, or trees that have been bioengineered to light the streets, or people who are eternally youthful and disease-free, then you're not just seeing Earth - you're also seeing Mot. Hell, the fact that we're still on this planet, in physical bodies, is a testament to Mot's influence.
Allen: "Huh. Well, I feel you there; I want all those things too. And you're right that god-like technology could solve almost all the issues we face today. But something does feel pretty weird about describing all of this as a single problem, let alone blaming a god of lacking-technology."
Carl: "Say more?"
Allen: "Well, there's not any unified force holding back the progress of technology, right? If anything, it's the opposite. Absence of advanced technology is the default state, which we need to work hard to escape - and that's difficult not because of any opposition, but just because of entropy."
Carl: "What about cases where Mot is being channeled by enemies of progress? For example, when
bureaucratic regulatory agencies do their best to
stifle scientific research?"
Allen: "But in those cases you don't need to appeal to Mot - you can just say 'our enemy is overregulation'. Or if you defined Mot as the god of overregulation, I'd be totally on board. But you're making a much bigger claim than that. The reason we haven't uploaded ourselves yet isn't that there's a force that's blocking us, it's almost entirely that scientific progress is really ...
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an angel!
Holy the lone juggernaut! Holy the vast lamb of the middleclass! Holy the crazy shepherds of rebellion! Who digs Los Angeles IS Los Angeles!
Holy New York Holy San Francisco Holy Peoria & Seattle Holy Paris Holy Tangiers Holy Moscow Holy Istanbul!
Holy time in eternity holy eternity in time holy the clocks in space holy the fourth dimension holy the fifth International holy the Angel in Moloch!
Footnote to Howl
Scene: Carl and Allen, two old friends, are having a conversation about theodicy.
Carl: "Let me tell you about the god who is responsible for almost all our suffering. This god is an ancient Canaanite god, one who has been seen throughout history as a source of death and destruction. Of course, he doesn't exist in a literal sense, but we can conceptualize him as a manifestation of forces that persist even today, and which play a crucial role in making the world worse. His name is M-"
Allen: "-oloch, right? Scott Alexander's god of coordination failures. Yeah, I've read
Meditations on Moloch. It's an amazing post; it resonated with me very deeply."
Carl: "I was actually going to say
Mot, the Canaanite god of death, bringer of famine and drought."
Allen: "Huh. Okay, you got me. Tell me about Mot, then; what does he represent?"
Carl: "Mot is the god of sterility and lifelessness. To me, he represents the lack of technology in our lives. With technology, we can tame famine, avert drought, and cure disease. We can perform feats that our ancestors would have seen as miracles: flying through the air, and even into space. But we're still so so far from achieving the true potential of technology - and I think of Mot as the personification of what's blocking us.
"You can see Mot everywhere, when you know what to look for. Whenever a patient lies suffering from a disease that we haven't cured yet, that's Mot's hand at work. Whenever a child grows up in poverty, that's because of Mot too. We could have flying cars, and space elevators, and so much more, if it weren't for Mot.
"Look out your window and you see buildings, trees, people. But if you don't see skyscrapers literally miles high, or trees that have been bioengineered to light the streets, or people who are eternally youthful and disease-free, then you're not just seeing Earth - you're also seeing Mot. Hell, the fact that we're still on this planet, in physical bodies, is a testament to Mot's influence.
Allen: "Huh. Well, I feel you there; I want all those things too. And you're right that god-like technology could solve almost all the issues we face today. But something does feel pretty weird about describing all of this as a single problem, let alone blaming a god of lacking-technology."
Carl: "Say more?"
Allen: "Well, there's not any unified force holding back the progress of technology, right? If anything, it's the opposite. Absence of advanced technology is the default state, which we need to work hard to escape - and that's difficult not because of any opposition, but just because of entropy."
Carl: "What about cases where Mot is being channeled by enemies of progress? For example, when
bureaucratic regulatory agencies do their best to
stifle scientific research?"
Allen: "But in those cases you don't need to appeal to Mot - you can just say 'our enemy is overregulation'. Or if you defined Mot as the god of overregulation, I'd be totally on board. But you're making a much bigger claim than that. The reason we haven't uploaded ourselves yet isn't that there's a force that's blocking us, it's almost entirely that scientific progress is really ...