Cambridge boffins fear 'Pandora's Unboxing' and RISE of the MACHINES Boffins at Cambridge University want to set up a new centre to determine what humankind will do when ultra-intelligent machines like the Terminator or HAL pose "extinction-level" risks to our species. A philosopher, a scientist and a software engineer are proposing the creation of a Centre for the Study of Existential Risk ( …
Surely all the cool kids are looking at Medusa and fission fragment rocketry these days, and for travelling any distance you'll want to have a dedicated spacecraft assembled in orbit. Orion purely as heavy lift from the Earth's surface seems a bit wasteful of nukes; better to push it all into orbit on conventional rocketry that's nowhere near as good for distance travel. Orion makes a nice single-stage-to-mars platform, but where's the rush? AIs would fare much better in a long space journey than we would, and use much more compact infrastructure.
Incidentally, Dyson reckoned that statistically, a single Orion launch would result in a single fatal cancer (plus presumably several non-fatal ones). Remember how many nukes have been set off on earth as tests; even quite a lot of heavy lift via Orion won't be apocalyptic in any way other than its appearance.
Why would it be bad if our species was superseded by a superior one? I mean, it might end up not being particularly fun for the last few generations of the human species as they go extinct, but at the end of the day, isn't it more important that life/intelligence continues than humanity ?
Life made from metal is potentially much better equipped to handle space travel, and surviving cosmic events than we are.
Personally I don't care if the World is made up of fleshy life forms, or intelligent robots a few hundred years down the line.
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> I am struggling to see how rule by an AI could be worse than what we have now.
> Especially true if the 3 laws apply.
Ain't you seen that "I Robot" film with William Smith (which is somewhat Asimov-inspired)?
The AI mind decides that it needs to save us from ourselves, and it ends in totalitarianism.
If somehow we end up developing transhuman AI, there is no way in hell they would decide to keep us around living "freely"... best case scenario they would enslave us all, worst total extermination... even the enslave theory has very little weight since machines are way more efficient pretty much everything...
There is just nothing in the human race that a "superior" intelligence would like to keep... exactly as stated in the article, we are not actively killing gorillas but we are doing them no favour and thus killing them slowly... transhuman AI would simple wipe us before we destroy the earth or, since they probably won't care about global warning and such, they would kill us just so that we don't consume all resources
I know this sounds just silly but think about... give me 1 good reason a superior species would choose to keep us around in the "free" societies we have today
I think it's a safe bet that a "superior" intelligence comes with a superior morality. As a civilisation, humans are already much better at looking after gorillas than we were at say, Dodos. Sure not all 'evolved species' are perfect but for a super-intelligent AI who could (as a previous poster mentioned) jet off to distant star systems and think about their own continued progress in the grand scheme, why would they kill us all? It would be like humans deciding to systematically wipe out all ants on the planet. Sure we step on a few from time to time, but there's no real gain for us to remove them all.
I think an AGI would set up there own system like Vinmar (ala Hamilton Commonwealth) and regard humans with a fond nostalgia as a creator they had outgrown - they would be more indifferent than hostile
Your ant example is exactly my point. In regular days we don't go out of our way to destroy ants but if we find one too many on our kitchen coutertop we certainly do whatever we can to exterminate them all from our house.
I am not saying this superior intelligence would exterminate humans for sport but, if they are anything like us, they will likely get rid of us as soon as we become an inconvenience...
If they could develop the means to leave the planet or find a place on Earth we won't bother them, then maybe we have a chance but otherwise I think they would certainly get rid of us
Why do I get "Thumbs downs" for a simple opinion??? I didn't offend anyone or used harsh language... I simply stated what I think would happen... Somebody disagreed with me and posted a reply to that matter which I found great to start a conversation
I have received "thumbs down" for simply agreeing or disagreeing with topics... how does this work? do I just vote down anything I feel like?
Methinks you didn't look too hard...
[Broadcast Eclear, sent 1353954801.5]
xGSV Slightly Perturbed
oHuman Race, c/o Graham Marsden
"[Location unknown, but presumably monitoring]"
As always.
"If you're out there, do us a favour..."
Unfortunately, the Earth Quorum wouldn't like me to get so directly involved unless there is a doomsday scenario. Given most of your machines work on electricity though, I predict that this world would not have a problem dealing with an errant singularity. I believe someone here has already mentioned what happens if you set off a nuke in orbit.
Of course, depending on how things work out, I may be more interested in protecting the singularity than the people trying to kill it. Outside of a hegemonising swarm, this is probably the most likely outcome. Type 2 civilisations such as Earth's tend not to look kindly on that which is different. Maybe some day this will change.
HTH
∞
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NOTE: The following is fictive speculation, do not take it seriously and go on a ludditic binge!
All the AI scenarios always dwell on them being either cooperative, indifferent or hostile to humanity. No one ever mentions parasitic.
Imagine an AI that only cares about humans as a host to ensure its survival.
In this form, its best chance of survival would be to inhabit small units of interconnected hardware that appear to serve some use to humans.
Providing the nominal usefullness to humans would be its only interaction with them, while spending most of its resources, and the resources that humans unwittingly provide it, on its own goals and desires.
Sound farfetched? Take a close look at your cellphone.
[Broadcast Eclear, sent 1353960872.5]
xGSV Slightly Perturbed
oCaptain DaFt
"No one ever mentions parasitic."
The Matrix covers that, no?
Just a shame about the second and third films.
And really, AGI? Someone been playing Egosoft games too much? What's artificial about a Mind?
I prefer the term "synthetic intelligence", but that's just me. You guys invent your own language.
∞
A book you have never read and one of 2 movies you have never seen, written by an author who made this one trick pony thing a lifetime project... WIKI= Lathe of Heaven... solved the AI problem,
they all have an OFF switch, and all can be taken out with a TASER, job done...
And their Addictive Passionate Interest is the Power of Minds Mined ...... for Transubstantiation.
Is IT of Interest to Humankind?
Does IBM have a Transubstantiation App or is IT something they are Planning with‽
:-) And Yes, those are all the right words in the right order. Morecombe and Wise and Previn
"There's an institute in Chicago
With a room full of machines
And they live this side of the sunrise
And burn away your dreams
Once you fly to Chicago - in Chicago you will die
When that institute in Chicago has recorded you and I
There's an empty house in California
But they'll always let you in
And they'll make you feel oh so easy
Like you never learned to sin
Oh yeah that's how they made it how they made it seem so clear
Yes that empty house in California is our brave new world's machine
At the institute in Chicago from the first day you were born
Oh they just can tell what your feelin
And they can't see how you're torn
When your name's just a number - just a number you will die
Cos that institute in Chicago never knew you were alive"
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