4 ms·
The problem there is, such a benevolent AI us not a robust technology. If we are thrown back into the pre-industrial era, there's a good chance that the AI woul
by atroyn 11y ago
The problem there is, such a benevolent AI us not a robust technology. If we are thrown back into the pre-industrial era, there's a good chance that the AI would stop functioning.
Make no mistake, I'm optimistic about technology in general, I just want to observe that this is a unique moment in history an we should treat it as anything but inevitable that we'll make it.
- ChuckMcM 11y agoAs I read the author's point it was that some set of events would materialize that pull us back into the stone age (the air tight box) which denies the possibility that something we're already doing has already counteracted that. There are no fewer than 6 reasonably well funded fusion research programs which have some possibility of producing massive amounts of easily consumed energy while eliminating large parts of the negative spiral (say carbon emissions), not to mention that with sufficiently inexpensive energy you can pull carbon out of the air and turn it into what every hydro carbon you want. The world has seen doomsday predictions forever, and while there is always the possibility we'll kill ourselves off, one has to recognize that there is also the possibility that we won't. Good and bad things seem to happen in about equal measure when you look at it on a larger time scale. Doomsday thinking is counter productive to getting stuff done anyway as it tends to sap people energy (why invest time in what you're doing if you're all going to die anyway? sorts of reasoning).
- dclowd9901 11y agoIt'd be cool if the first version of an AI was an air gapped "forever" computer that ran on nuclear power and very elementary components.