Utopian fiction as a design spec for ASI alignment
A LessWrong essay argues that those building toward aligned superintelligence should study utopian fiction — not as escapism, but as concrete thought experiments about what we're actually optimizing for.
• The Culture, Dath Ilan, Friendship is Optimal, and others offer different visions of post-scarcity worlds
• Most utopias reveal blindspots: what looks perfect on paper often fails to account for human nature or second-order effects
• The author's own favorite utopian moment is buried in Worth the Candle — suggesting the best visions emerge from long narrative exploration, not standalone treatises