5 ms·

Often wondered what the world would be like if there was an intelligence group that only did good.

• rhizome 10y ago
  What would be the purpose of that agency?
  • cm3 10y ago
    Well, they could start by actually operating on the intel they have, rather than letting people bomb buildings because they have a long-term goal they don't want to be disturbed by revealing a bomb plot.
    • dexterdog 10y ago
      But sometimes stopping one plot will kill an operation that can stop many others later. Somebody has to weigh that and that somebody always looks bad.
      • rhizome 10y ago
        You have to account for the converse: conducting an operation can start many others.
• 7952 10y ago
  Like a secret society? The web could create endless opportunities for shadowy groups to emerge.
• benevol 10y ago
  If we extrapolate, humans will sooner or later create "true AI". Such an AI system can break free from our control (it will end up manipulating us in the physical space), it should become wiser than humanity as a collective (because it will evolve much faster then us). And in this case, we'd end up having such "an intelligence group that only did good". The problem lies in how we manage to bridge the period between now and "then", because it will be a highly volatile situation, with a very high probability for our extinction.
  • viraptor 10y ago
    You're assuming that a "true AI" if it existed would care about the continued existence of humanity? Past the point of ability to self-repair and self-fuel, what would be the reason to even care about humanity then beyond self-defence?
    • benevol 10y ago
      You're right. It wouldn't care more about humanity than the Universe does. And it seems it would even end up not caring about its own self-defence, since this is only a human/animal-based drive, not a "divine" one. And that would lead to the conclusion that AI will only dominate us during certain periods of time, will mainly remain of commercial nature, used as a tool to create/monopolize power further.
    • malka 10y ago
      Ultimately it is human that Will define what variable the ai must optimize. Though one Will have to be very wary what he wishes for.
    • Retra 10y ago
      You're assuming that if "true AI" existed, it would be in total control of all the infrastructure needed to maintain it's own existence.
      • viraptor 10y ago
        Not at first. That's exactly why I wrote "Past the point of ability to self-repair and self-fuel"
  • jp555 10y ago
    AI may very well end up being perfectly efficient and incorruptible at managing resources, but we will sill need to give it "human purpose". That's where the problem is.
• fsloth 10y ago
  Not feasible. Until we develop an ethical calculus "good" will always be relative. The problem with this is that one cannot infer ethics from logic. Also, human basic psychology is such that more power one has the less scrupulous one becomes. Therefore, either the group would be within a range of totally good in nature and totally feeble in power, or totally corrupt in nature and totally powerfull.
  • jdietrich 10y ago
    I'd settle for an intelligence organisation that followed basic human rights law. Intelligence is dominated by a "the ends justify the means" attitude that permits all sorts of grave injustices.
    • TeMPOraL 10y ago
      The problem here is humans in general. Intelligence agencies are created to follow orders of politicians, who often have morally dubious agendas - but at some point those agencies can also discover they have enough power they can do whatever they want without much oversight. I too do dream of S.H.I.E.L.D.
  • zo1 10y ago
    >"The problem with this is that one cannot infer ethics from logic." Of course you can. The problem I assume you're encountering is that you're not starting from irreducible basic premises. Thus, you can't logically resolve the already-existing and conflicting inconsistencies. We are bombarded from birth with very illogical and inconsistent rules about how the world works. All of those things implicitly include "ethical" value systems. They're very hard to reconcile logically after the fact, simply because they're contradictory in nature and we have at that point heavily-invested into building mental models to navigate the world.
• _yosefk 10y ago
  Most of them do, according to their definition of "good."
  • nxzero 10y ago
    I know, it's ironic.
• Zigurd 10y ago
  It should be simpler, and easier, than having to do "good." The situation since the creation of the CIA is that it is the armed international branch of money politics. Just getting corporatism out of the CIA and getting its activities aligned with the national interest would be an enormous improvement.
  • Udik 10y ago
    "getting its activities aligned with the national interest" And what about other nations' national interests? Doing your own interest is not renowned as a particularly ethical activity per se, you know. Before assuming that the evil done by an intelligence agency has to do with its failure to work in its nation's interest, you should ask yourself whether your own interests are legitimate and above other people's interests.