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I really dislike the increasingly used term "ethics" and "ethically". Particularly ethics isn't something that's universally set in stone, it's a matter of indi

by pvdebbe 10y ago

I really dislike the increasingly used term "ethics" and "ethically". Particularly ethics isn't something that's universally set in stone, it's a matter of individual's philosophies (ie preferences) but the term gets treated like a universal thing.

TeMPOraL 10y ago
It'd better be universal, or else in presence of a superhuman AI we're surely fucked (as opposed to probably fucked). Fortunately, humans do seem to have some shared ethics core in their firmware.
- mti 10y ago
  Regular humans have, for over half a century, possessed the ability to annihilate the entirety of civilization by basically pushing a button. So it always amazes me when people feel the need to make science fictional assumptions like AGI in their doomsday scenarios.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    AGI isn't a replacement doomsday scenario; it's a set of additional scenarios to be considered together with the usual ones - nuclear war, biological war, global pandemic, gamma ray bursts, etc.
  - LordKano 10y ago
    A malevolent AI is a particularly terrifying prospect. Despite the fact that humanity has possessed the ability to destroy ourselves for quite so long, fortunately because we're still flesh and blood, biological entities and our evolution has lead to some more or less universal truths about us. We tend to love our families. We tend to want what we consider to be the best for our offspring. We tend to have some sense of obligation to protect our parents when they can no longer do so for themselves. All of these (and many other) things that act to mediate our civilization-destroying traits wouldn't necessarily apply to an AI.
- TheGrumpyBrit 10y ago
  Sure, we (mostly) share a core set of ethical values, and for that reason I'm not overly concerned about us creating a master race of killer androids (the Note 7 aside). My concern is the more subtle elements, where different perspectives will see different choices as being ethically sound. Ask a truck driver and the CEO of a haulage firm what they think about the ethical considerations of self-driving trucks, and you'll get two completely different answers, both with valid points.

by pvdebbe 10y ago

TeMPOraL 10y ago

It'd better be universal, or else in presence of a superhuman AI we're surely fucked (as opposed to probably fucked). Fortunately, humans do seem to have some shared ethics core in their firmware.

mti 10y ago
Regular humans have, for over half a century, possessed the ability to annihilate the entirety of civilization by basically pushing a button. So it always amazes me when people feel the need to make science fictional assumptions like AGI in their doomsday scenarios.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  AGI isn't a replacement doomsday scenario; it's a set of additional scenarios to be considered together with the usual ones - nuclear war, biological war, global pandemic, gamma ray bursts, etc.
- LordKano 10y ago
  A malevolent AI is a particularly terrifying prospect. Despite the fact that humanity has possessed the ability to destroy ourselves for quite so long, fortunately because we're still flesh and blood, biological entities and our evolution has lead to some more or less universal truths about us. We tend to love our families. We tend to want what we consider to be the best for our offspring. We tend to have some sense of obligation to protect our parents when they can no longer do so for themselves. All of these (and many other) things that act to mediate our civilization-destroying traits wouldn't necessarily apply to an AI.
TheGrumpyBrit 10y ago
Sure, we (mostly) share a core set of ethical values, and for that reason I'm not overly concerned about us creating a master race of killer androids (the Note 7 aside). My concern is the more subtle elements, where different perspectives will see different choices as being ethically sound. Ask a truck driver and the CEO of a haulage firm what they think about the ethical considerations of self-driving trucks, and you'll get two completely different answers, both with valid points.