Alternative Models for Managing Self-Replicating Nanotechnology

Members do have responsibilities. If you sign up, you must enforce the IntelRep self-replication exclusive nationally. So if people try to break into self-replicating things, you must enforce this treaty obligation and prosecute those people in your country. Members must screen potential customers within their country for responsibility level or signs of misuse. These are part of the standards that the Foresight guidelines has put forth to disseminate best practices nationally.

In conclusion, IntelRep meets the Foresight guidelines very nicely. It provides international control against misuse, minimal red tape, third-world benefits, sales restricted to responsible actors, self-replication in open systems is possible (that's where it departs from Foresight and goes beyond Foresight, and I think it helps save the world there), misuse is actionable, and ongoing best practices study and modeling.

Financing
Let's explore why countries would jump at an opportunity to invest in this. For example, imagine that the net present value of exclusive worldwide rights to self-replicating technology is 100 billion dollars. You could go to the national and world capital markets and run an IPO (Initial Public Offering) for a substantial portion of that and easily finance all of the obligations described here, set up three well-financed self-replicating labs around the world, put them in competition with each other under management, and get self-replicating nanotechnology on the fast track.

Other Geoethical Benchmarks
IntelRep would help third-world countries. Third-world countries would leap into MNT, while first-world countries would initially be setting up regulations for MNT.

We have met the risk principle, because by signing up to be a member of IntelRep, you are consenting to supporting self-replicating technology. And we have met the benefit principle. And, because it self-finances itself, we have met the assurance principle.

Why does the geoethical approach work so nicely? The geoethical principle works because it sequesters the worst risks in a few highly visible places. That is why this approach always works with these kind of risks. It gives everyone an ownership of both those risks and the rewards. It gives risk managers a strong incentive for pursuing rewards in order to avoid the bureaucrat mentality that occurs when the government is not in business to make money.

But here you put a quasi-government organization on a profit-making track to create rewards, and then they are incentivised to, in fact, take risks. And finally it balances incentives with controls by agents of the risked population. So, because all the world's countries are members of this, there is a balance of risk and reward.

Conclusion
In summary, I think the Foresight Guidelines are actually very clever, more clever than they seem in black and white. But I believe that they can be improved upon and subsumed. Geoethics resolves the open system hold, which is a huge hole. IntelRep should be organized now; it is time to pass the baton. Onwards!