True, 200000 years is a lot. Let's take a look at 2000 years ago, and start moving forwards... Even I admit that humans are usually better (I think that's because they are controlled better). But I don't know, if you had asked a slave not so long ago maybe they would have answered other thing. There is a great wall in China, built by slaves, and because of a war.Hobbes' Choice wrote:
It's s stupid dichotomy as we have no idea what life was like back then, certainly not in terms of the issues Quirk is talking about.
Yeah, now there is enough food for everybody and people die of hunger. Before, there wasn't enough food, there was the same "equality" (or less, I think it's not so common to have a king who can say "kill that guy, he looked at me"), and people died anyway. And they'll keep dying.
There is an evident benefit in saving a man's life, and the man is going to be (theoretically) grateful: If a man goes and put a building offering food for work 10 hours/day in a hard phisical work for children, many people would scream that it is slavery (even when the man is providing the food they need to live, is saving their lifes). Yep, that man is a bastard, he show the oportunity,he catched it, and he prefers to keep that people ignorant cause they are cheaperthat way... but people doesn't care, many people say that there aren't evil people here, and they buy the cheaper products.
Now, if a man goes there and offers education etc, tryng to give a good life and a good job for people there... many people would say the same, and, more important, in their life, they wouldn't pay but for destroy that man, just because he earns more than them and evidently the cost of that education and better products is going to be in the price.
People are stupid, that won't change. They are not necesarily "evil", but now, every big organization, like google (I know people who worked for them (not cleaning XD)) lives being what people wants them to be in the end, liers, cruel bastards who destroy competitors. The more people scream against it, the more they pay for it. They get dellusional, so what they do? they vote for Trump (don't forget that every "system" or "politics" are for me an equal lie, I'm just trying to show peole psichology, it would be the same with Hitler, it is the same with authoritarian comunists... the more people is bad, the more they "love the chains" (famous shout by the way in my own country)), the world is expensive, they are surrounded by people who are dishonest, what do they do? pay for the stolen stuff because it's cheaper and they want to compete too (Never put a barrier against people who are acting bad, not alone) etc. And scream that they are surrounded by selfish people... in their computer, with a coke in their hands, in their house, to feel that they are nice people, very worried about eating only vegetables... while people die of hunger.
It won't change. Not my problem.
So, when considering humanity's "grade", you'd have to say "Developing" ... and hopefully that means more than just a euphemism, that we really will make progress. However, given the rise in irrationality, general AI seems much more likely to eventually become wise than humanity, and that's not guaranteed either.