Capable generalists
Generalist Path
A short route through the core idea without requiring prior alignment jargon.
Appendix D · start here for concreteness
BioShield worked example
The deployment gate is not abstract checklist prose. Appendix D walks a fictional hospital network through boundary, grounding, correction handles, bearer maps, successors, selection pressure, and a conditional safety case.
What this path is for
You have not followed alignment Twitter, MIRI archives, or this project’s prior papers. You still want an honest map of what superintelligence alignment could mean as a research program.
You will leave knowing:
- The preservation problems the book treats as load-bearing (boundary, bundles, bearers, correction, successors, selection).
- Why “align the model weights” is often the wrong object.
- What would count as evidence here — and what the book explicitly does not claim.
- Where to go next if you want formal detail, eval artifacts, or policy translation.
Time: about 2–3 hours following the ordered list above.
PDF companion (optional)
Executive Overview → Introduction → Part I (Chapters 1–5). Stop when the map feels stable; the list above is the site spine.
Read in this order
Cards, chapter toys, experiment lines, and book chapters — curated for this audience. Experiments are sanity checks only; negative results are part of the reading.
What the Book Is Not Claiming
Claim strength — what this project does and does not prove.
Front Matter
Executive overview — scope and the six preservation problems.
The Wrong Object of Alignment
Why aligning the model weights is often the wrong object.
Boundary Discovery
Find the effective optimizer in the deployed loop.
Value-Bundle Transport
Values as tradeoff directions, not slogans.
Value Bundle Simulator
Interactive sketch — how environment shapes a value bundle.
Correction-Channel Integrity
Human correction must causally change future behavior.
Successor Stability
Copies and successors must inherit correction structure.
Socio-Technical Attractor Control
Deployment environments select for or against alignment.
Deployment Gate
A checkpoint with teeth before a larger action envelope.
A Worked Example: The BioShield Deployment Gate
BioShield hospital network — end-to-end gate walkthrough.
Evidence and Uncertainty
How to read claim labels and negative results.
Toy simulation
Fastest capture-theater demo — why correction metrics can lie.