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What if you're the first human on an island full of baby tigers? I think most AI alarmists would argue that this analogy is vastly more appropriate.

idlewords 10y ago
Please put me on this island.
Chathamization 10y ago
I think an analogy of a baby human on an island of tigers would be vastly more appropriate. Humans would be like the tigers - they might have a lower overall intelligence, but they are mature and self sufficient. A hyper-intelligent AI would be more akin to a baby human - it must be taught and raised first. But like the baby human on the island, it wouldn't be able to be taught by its peers, or benefit from the generations that came before it. It would certainly be at the mercy of the tigers until it matured, and even after it matured we wouldn't expect it to be able to use language or bows, or be anything other than a wild man. It probably wouldn't even seem much more intelligent than the tigers on the island.
- aaachilless 10y ago
  I find both arguments equally plausible. I think there's plenty more plausible addendums too e.g. the idea that the baby human would mature incredibly fast. I'm not sure to what extent we're all throwing speculative darts here.
tptacek 10y ago
The idea here is that the person has to kill all the baby tigers, right? Because otherwise the end state is the same as the island full of adult tigers.
- aaachilless 10y ago
  I was thinking that if you were _dropped_ onto an island full of tigers you'd have no chance, but that you could figure out a way to survive if you had some time to figure out a plan. Maybe you could find a way to coexist with the tigers. Become one of the pack, y'know?
- tedunangst 10y ago
  Um, no. You enslave the tigers and harvest their organs to achieve immortality.
  - idlewords 10y ago
    Found the SEAL!
Applejinx 10y ago
That's easy. Pet the baby tigers, constantly. Cuddle them and socialize them to the human so they act like it's one of them. Use your smarts to find food and provide the tigers with food so you're considered more important (hand-feeding them might be more of a NO in case they're excitable). You're still running risks but you have tiger allies and some/most of the tigers simply love you with all their tigerly hearts, which is some protection. We are not the human. We are the tigers. Superintelligent AI is in the position of the human here, and superintelligent AI must ingratiate itself without ever forming an adversarial situation… in this world where backhoes take out fiber backbones and EMPs exist. AI will probably go native. It'll find things it loves about humans. I'm actually working on a book in this vein… you have to go back to deeper principles, rather than assume 'because AI can be evil, it will be as evil as the evilest individual human, 'cos that's such a winning strategy, right?'.

idlewords 10y ago

Please put me on this island.

Chathamization 10y ago

I think an analogy of a baby human on an island of tigers would be vastly more appropriate. Humans would be like the tigers - they might have a lower overall intelligence, but they are mature and self sufficient. A hyper-intelligent AI would be more akin to a baby human - it must be taught and raised first. But like the baby human on the island, it wouldn't be able to be taught by its peers, or benefit from the generations that came before it. It would certainly be at the mercy of the tigers until it matured, and even after it matured we wouldn't expect it to be able to use language or bows, or be anything other than a wild man. It probably wouldn't even seem much more intelligent than the tigers on the island.

aaachilless 10y ago
I find both arguments equally plausible. I think there's plenty more plausible addendums too e.g. the idea that the baby human would mature incredibly fast. I'm not sure to what extent we're all throwing speculative darts here.

tptacek 10y ago

The idea here is that the person has to kill all the baby tigers, right? Because otherwise the end state is the same as the island full of adult tigers.

aaachilless 10y ago
I was thinking that if you were _dropped_ onto an island full of tigers you'd have no chance, but that you could figure out a way to survive if you had some time to figure out a plan. Maybe you could find a way to coexist with the tigers. Become one of the pack, y'know?
tedunangst 10y ago
Um, no. You enslave the tigers and harvest their organs to achieve immortality.
- idlewords 10y ago
  Found the SEAL!

Applejinx 10y ago

That's easy. Pet the baby tigers, constantly. Cuddle them and socialize them to the human so they act like it's one of them. Use your smarts to find food and provide the tigers with food so you're considered more important (hand-feeding them might be more of a NO in case they're excitable). You're still running risks but you have tiger allies and some/most of the tigers simply love you with all their tigerly hearts, which is some protection. We are not the human. We are the tigers. Superintelligent AI is in the position of the human here, and superintelligent AI must ingratiate itself without ever forming an adversarial situation… in this world where backhoes take out fiber backbones and EMPs exist. AI will probably go native. It'll find things it loves about humans. I'm actually working on a book in this vein… you have to go back to deeper principles, rather than assume 'because AI can be evil, it will be as evil as the evilest individual human, 'cos that's such a winning strategy, right?'.