X-Message-Number: 15880 Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 10:32:12 -0800 (PST) From: Scott Badger <> Subject: Re: [off topic] Singularity... Bah Humbug! To James Swayze; First let me say that I don't believe this thread to be far off topic. The singularity has a decent chance of occurring before the technology develops to revive cryonics patients and it would have an important impact on our goals as well as everyone else in the world for that matter. I'm certainly not the most qualified to respond to your concerns about machine AI, but I think your making some rather remarkable assumptions when you suggest that a human-based AI will be much less dangerous. I suspect the most likely scenario is that one human-based super AI entity will develop before the general population has access to such a transformation. I would also expect that AI to quickly evolve into an entity as superior to the average human as the average human is to an insect. The notion that that entity will retain its "humanity" simply because its origin was human is difficult to argue in my opinion. Imagine you're the entity for a moment and the next most sentient creatures on the planet are ants. They have a rudimentary language and a simple social system. Though you were once an ant yourself, they are quite unable to conceive of what you are now and of what you plan to become. Significant issues arise. You need resources to continue your growth and expansion. You may not see any reason to destroy the ants to get the resources you need (then again you may), but the real problem is that the ants have figured out how to create someone like you which means they will do it again. So do you want to allow another super AI to come into existence to compete for the limited resources available? And don't assume the AI would be "lonely" or "sympathetic" or "ethical" by our standards. Those are human traits and are not likely to apply to a super AI. After all, how many traits do share with ants? So ... if you choose to avoid competition, what must you do? Perhaps you can try to prevent the ants from creating another AI by destroying their technology, but won't they only rebuild without you keeping a constant eye on them? Perhaps you could leave the planet looking for resources (i.e. matter/energy) elsewhere in the cosmos. If this is the most optimal choice, then the ants would be quite curious and disappointed because every super AI they create promptly leaves the planet. Then again, how important would the ants' lives really be to you if their continued existence represented such a serious threat? To what lengths would you go to spare them? My real point is that you can't answer that question for a super AI because you aren't one and cannot know it's mind. It is unfathomable. The singularity and the idea of creating a super AI, either machine-based or human-based, scares me, but I don't see how it's not going to happen. Too many people around the world are working on artificial intelligence. The temptation will be too great to resist. Someone's going to flip that switch and when they do, for better or for worse, nothing is likely to be the same again. Best regards, Scott Badger "Vita Perpetuem" __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15880