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I'm just curious, why is it terrifying? Would a super intelligent human being produced by science be any more terrifying then one that occurred naturally? Cou

I'm just curious, why is it terrifying? Would a super intelligent human being produced by science be any more terrifying then one that occurred naturally? Couldn't we be creating a being that could push us forward collectively? Think about the contribution to modern life Einstein, John Von Neumann, and Bohr had. If we had a way to make very intelligent designer humans, there could be a chance they could push us collectively forward in a similar way. I imagine that an Einstein born now, with access to the whole worlds information could be much more impactful (or maybe he would just succumb to liking cat videos.) All humans designer or not can be terrifying, beautiful, impactful, and other worldly. You don't have to be unnatural to be an evil bastard, and maybe an engineered human could be like Gandhi. Don't prejudge, just because its unnatural doesn't mean it is not good. Just like GMO doesn't mean bad (I eat organic food by the way), a lot of this goes to intent. If science wants to push us forward and make us better. I'm all for it. If they want to engineer us to be resistant to industrial chemicals or pollution so that companies can pollute more, or make super soldiers that is when you have to be terrified . Not just because we have something artificial.

Houshalter 10y ago
I don't know. A lot of people agree with you, that creating superintelligent humans is necessary. I'm scared of being replaced. I'm also worried such humans would be so different than us, they wouldn't identify with us. Maybe even come to despise us. They would form their own ingroup and view us as enemies even. I've met someone that had high IQ, and identified with high IQ like some people identify with their country. He legitimately hated low IQ people, was ok with exterminating them, and said he would prefer to die or commit suicide than lose his intelligence. It was such an alien way of looking at the world to me.
- eli_gottlieb 10y ago
  >I'm scared of being replaced. I'm also worried such humans would be so different than us, they wouldn't identify with us. Maybe even come to despise us. They would form their own ingroup and view us as enemies even. You're on Hacker News and you're afraid of nerds? Come on. We're right here. Ask us what we think of you. >I've met someone that had high IQ, and identified with high IQ like some people identify with their country. He legitimately hated low IQ people, was ok with exterminating them, and said he would prefer to die or commit suicide than lose his intelligence. It was such an alien way of looking at the world to me. To be honest, he probably went through a lot of pain and maltreatment to acquire that kind of point-of-view. He's not an alien! He's a person. Just because his cognition has less noise in it and he needs fewer samples to reach the same inferences doesn't make him some fundamentally different kind of creature: all the algorithms are the same, only their free parameters are different. Smart people have empathy and feelings too, and in fact, most of the time the most genuinely hurtful thing we experience (speaking as someone who is too often told that he's the "smart guy" in the group, even among nerdy, intelligent people) is precisely the Straw Vulcan stereotype about intelligence. We're not cold-hearted, we're not aliens, we're just people. Putting us in gifted programs as kids is a great idea. Forcing us to compose prodigal concertos at age 12 is probably a bad idea. Treating us with respect and fellowship works best.
  - Houshalter 10y ago
    No I'm not "afraid of nerds". I am a nerd. These wouldn't be nerds, they would be to Einstein, what Einstein was to an average person. The distance would probably be far greater actually. They could plausibly be a different species than us. What happened to this guy I was talking about, was high IQ defined his identity, what separated him from others. Fortunately most high IQ people do integrate fine into society, we all still have a lot on common. But it's likely the superintelligent babies would not integrate well. They would only be able to communicate and find things in common with other supers, and not idenitfy with us normies. We'd be subhumans to them.
DyslexicAtheist 10y ago
I find it terrifying because regardless of their IQ in their nature they would still be humans that are shaped as much by their environment as any other toddler child tween teen adult. The day we're able to make batman a reality someone will also make The Joker a reality.
joering2 10y ago
Unless they would immediately build a spaceship and leave for a better place, it is obvious they would look at us as under-race that is heavily polluting and destroying the same planet they are force to inhabit. While some might think, "oh well they would just guide us on how to treat Earth better and we all gonna live happily ever after", I would rather bet there would be no good reason for such investment on their part; you don't invest time and energy into training monkeys not to leave the Zoo perimeter; you just put high fences and plug them to electricity. Honestly, and selfishly, the better race of human is just that - a better version of humans. Sadly I personally would accept their superiority.
- krapp 10y ago
  > Sadly I personally would accept their superiority. It's not as if you'd have a choice in the matter, any more than neanderthals had a choice when we came along.
  - solotronics 10y ago
    don't we have a moral obligation to improve our children as much as possible? the universe is tough enough without holding ourselves back from something that may be possible.
    - krapp 10y ago
      Perhaps, and perhaps our children will use "Homo Sapiens" to describe a sub-human too stupid to live, the way we do "Neanderthal", once there's nothing left of us but bones.

Houshalter 10y ago

I don't know. A lot of people agree with you, that creating superintelligent humans is necessary. I'm scared of being replaced. I'm also worried such humans would be so different than us, they wouldn't identify with us. Maybe even come to despise us. They would form their own ingroup and view us as enemies even. I've met someone that had high IQ, and identified with high IQ like some people identify with their country. He legitimately hated low IQ people, was ok with exterminating them, and said he would prefer to die or commit suicide than lose his intelligence. It was such an alien way of looking at the world to me.

eli_gottlieb 10y ago
>I'm scared of being replaced. I'm also worried such humans would be so different than us, they wouldn't identify with us. Maybe even come to despise us. They would form their own ingroup and view us as enemies even. You're on Hacker News and you're afraid of nerds? Come on. We're right here. Ask us what we think of you. >I've met someone that had high IQ, and identified with high IQ like some people identify with their country. He legitimately hated low IQ people, was ok with exterminating them, and said he would prefer to die or commit suicide than lose his intelligence. It was such an alien way of looking at the world to me. To be honest, he probably went through a lot of pain and maltreatment to acquire that kind of point-of-view. He's not an alien! He's a person. Just because his cognition has less noise in it and he needs fewer samples to reach the same inferences doesn't make him some fundamentally different kind of creature: all the algorithms are the same, only their free parameters are different. Smart people have empathy and feelings too, and in fact, most of the time the most genuinely hurtful thing we experience (speaking as someone who is too often told that he's the "smart guy" in the group, even among nerdy, intelligent people) is precisely the Straw Vulcan stereotype about intelligence. We're not cold-hearted, we're not aliens, we're just people. Putting us in gifted programs as kids is a great idea. Forcing us to compose prodigal concertos at age 12 is probably a bad idea. Treating us with respect and fellowship works best.
- Houshalter 10y ago
  No I'm not "afraid of nerds". I am a nerd. These wouldn't be nerds, they would be to Einstein, what Einstein was to an average person. The distance would probably be far greater actually. They could plausibly be a different species than us. What happened to this guy I was talking about, was high IQ defined his identity, what separated him from others. Fortunately most high IQ people do integrate fine into society, we all still have a lot on common. But it's likely the superintelligent babies would not integrate well. They would only be able to communicate and find things in common with other supers, and not idenitfy with us normies. We'd be subhumans to them.

DyslexicAtheist 10y ago

I find it terrifying because regardless of their IQ in their nature they would still be humans that are shaped as much by their environment as any other toddler child tween teen adult. The day we're able to make batman a reality someone will also make The Joker a reality.

joering2 10y ago

Unless they would immediately build a spaceship and leave for a better place, it is obvious they would look at us as under-race that is heavily polluting and destroying the same planet they are force to inhabit. While some might think, "oh well they would just guide us on how to treat Earth better and we all gonna live happily ever after", I would rather bet there would be no good reason for such investment on their part; you don't invest time and energy into training monkeys not to leave the Zoo perimeter; you just put high fences and plug them to electricity. Honestly, and selfishly, the better race of human is just that - a better version of humans. Sadly I personally would accept their superiority.

krapp 10y ago
> Sadly I personally would accept their superiority. It's not as if you'd have a choice in the matter, any more than neanderthals had a choice when we came along.
- solotronics 10y ago
  don't we have a moral obligation to improve our children as much as possible? the universe is tough enough without holding ourselves back from something that may be possible.
  - krapp 10y ago
    Perhaps, and perhaps our children will use "Homo Sapiens" to describe a sub-human too stupid to live, the way we do "Neanderthal", once there's nothing left of us but bones.