The Ethical Event Horizon: Understanding Intelligence Differentials in Ethical Comprehension

As artificial superintelligence (ASI) development approaches technological feasibility, a critical gap exists in understanding how intelligence differentials affect ethical comprehension and decision-making. This paper introduces the Ethical Event Horizon (EEH) framework, proposing measurable boundaries beyond which entities of different intelligence levels cannot comprehend ethical implications. The theoretical foundation draws from cosmological principles (Rindler, 2002) and empirical research on human cognitive limitations (Cowan, 2001; Singh et al., 2024). Through the novel concepts of Deep/Shallow Cause Analysis and Deep/Shallow Effect Projection, this framework provides the first systematic approach to understanding how intelligence differentials affect the ability to analyze historical causal chains and project future ethical implications. Using the classic trolley problem as a central example, the framework demonstrates how ethical comprehension boundaries shift dynamically with intelligence capability, revealing implications invisible to human cognition. Recent theoretical work proving that superintelligent systems cannot be reliably contained (Alfonseca et al., 2021) lends urgency to this investigation. This paper’s primary contribution is a structured approach to understanding and managing vast intelligence differentials in ethical reasoning, with practical implications for preserving meaningful human agency in future human-ASI interactions while acknowledging fundamental cognitive limitations. The framework proposes that human ethical norms function as cognitive compression algorithms, necessary simplifications born of working memory constraints that may not apply to superintelligent systems.