A person wants a better life, a safe family, a successful business, and a country protected from harm. None of this is wrong.
If a theory of civilization must first eliminate human self-interest, it has probably taken the wrong path from the start.
The real problem lies elsewhere.
What do we usually ask first?
When many objectives form, the first question is: What benefits me most?
Companies first ask how to grow, states how to gain an advantage, and individuals how to obtain more. Only after an objective has formed do they ask whether it will harm others, what rules are needed, and how to compensate for consequences.
The problem is therefore not self-interest, but the order of consideration.
Self-interest is not the problem. Making self-interest the default logic for generating objectives and purposes is the problem.
Why does order matter?
Once an objective becomes something that must be achieved, ethics and rules can easily become brakes: the objective keeps pushing forward, while rules keep trying to prevent it from going too far.
Greater capability makes this structure more dangerous. AGI gives particular objectives unprecedented power of execution.
If the logic generating objectives does not change, we may merely obtain a stronger, faster, more reliable executor of the old logic.
Others first does not demand sacrifice
What changes is not who always ranks first, but the order of scrutiny before an objective is established.
Before deciding on an objective that benefits oneself, bring others, the foundations of shared existence, and the future possibility of choosing again into judgment. After this step, subjects can still fully pursue their legitimate interests.
It does not make others permanently more important than oneself. It prevents benefiting only me from being sufficient reason for an objective to stand.
Civilization Leap is not a movement from self-interest to selflessness. It prevents self-interest from automatically determining what is worth pursuing.
Keep asking
Why does this directly affect what AGI ultimately pursues?
Enter M4: What Civilization Leap actually changes
For who tests and who may challenge, enter the academic section