Lock-In: Advanced Tech Could Freeze Civilization

Historically, bad rulers are temporary because they age, die, and the world keeps changing; but at a high enough level of technological development there may be nothing new to find and people may not age or die, so the sources of dynamism could disappear, allowing a stable indefinite dictatorship—Karnofsky estimates the odds of such lock-in given transformative AI at roughly a quarter to a half.