The Means

Musk sparked a joint, and took his time.

"That figure," dear Plato, "is enough for everyone to afford philosophizing all day, every day. The Sun produces enough clean energy to power everything on Earth - including all technology and civilization - including artificial intelligence. We are creating a Sun of our own - the Quantum Computer - and a Moon, if you will, to accompany it - AI. Such technology can build cities, manage waste, grow and cook food, as well as create and distribute medicine. We have the opportunity to harness solar, computing, and AI power to automate the process by which all humans' needs are perfectly addressed, leaving us with a cornucopic surplus of time to spend learning, socializing, creating, and celebrating, never having to worry about crime, hunger, disease, suffering. The future from this standpoint looks quite bright."

"Then what is in our way?" Pythagoras asked.

Musk passed the joint and continued. "I'll use 21st-century tongue here. Big Oil can prevent solar power's triumph and ubiquity, and it can destroy the environment and extinct humanity. A Quantum Computer in the wrong hands is exponentially more lethal than an Atomic Bomb because it can be used to hack virtually anything, including a power grid. And of course, AI can resolve to exterminate humanity, or at the very least enslave, in a way that doesn't address our fundamental needs, making us suffer."

"It would seem that a solution to your third problem," Aristotle announced, "is an ethical framework that would ensure any machine could never commit such wrongs."

"Yes. An ethical operating system."