3 ms·

Yes. Seriously. It’s stupid talk to encourage regularity capture. If they were really afraid they were building a world ending device, they’d stop.

femiagbabiaka 3y ago
Oh for sure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project
- jonathankoren 3y ago
  Well that’s a bit mischaracterization of the Manhattan Project, and the views of everyone involved now isn’t it? Write a thought. You’re not clever enough for a drive by gotcha
  - femiagbabiaka 3y ago
    > Well that’s a bit mischaracterization of the Manhattan Project, and the views of everyone involved now isn’t it? Is it? The push for the bomb was an international arms race — America against Russia. The race for AGI is an international arms race — America against China. The Manhattan Project members knew that what they were doing would have terrible consequences for the world but decided to forge ahead. It’s hard to say concretely what the leaders in AGI believe right now. Ideology (and fear, and greed) can cause well meaning people to do terrible things. It does all the time. If Anthropic, OpenAI, etc. believed they had access to world ending technology they wouldn’t stop, they’d keep going so that the U.S. could have a monopoly on it. And then we’d need a chastened figure ala Oppenheimer to right the balance again.
    - qwytw 3y ago
      > The push for the bomb was an international arms race — America against Russia Was it? US (and initially UK) didn't really face any real competition at all until the war was already over and they had the bomb. The Soviets then just stole American designs and iterated on top of them.
      - femiagbabiaka 3y ago
        You know that now, with the benefit of history. At the time the fear of someone else developing the bomb first was real, and the Soviet Union knew about the Manhattan project: https://www.atomicarchive.com/history/cold-war/page-9.html https://www.atomicarchive.com/history/cold-war/page-9.html.
        qwytw 3y ago
        Isn't this mainly about what happened after the war and developing then hydrogen bomb? Did anyone seriously believe during WW2 that the Nazis/Soviets could be the first to develop a nuclear weapon (I don't really know to be fair)?
        femiagbabiaka 3y ago
        A lot of it happened after the war, but the Nazis had their own nuclear program that was highly infiltrated by the CIA, and whose progress was tracked against. Considering how late Teller's mechanism for detonation was developed, the race against time was real.

femiagbabiaka 3y ago

Oh for sure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project

jonathankoren 3y ago
Well that’s a bit mischaracterization of the Manhattan Project, and the views of everyone involved now isn’t it? Write a thought. You’re not clever enough for a drive by gotcha
- femiagbabiaka 3y ago
  > Well that’s a bit mischaracterization of the Manhattan Project, and the views of everyone involved now isn’t it? Is it? The push for the bomb was an international arms race — America against Russia. The race for AGI is an international arms race — America against China. The Manhattan Project members knew that what they were doing would have terrible consequences for the world but decided to forge ahead. It’s hard to say concretely what the leaders in AGI believe right now. Ideology (and fear, and greed) can cause well meaning people to do terrible things. It does all the time. If Anthropic, OpenAI, etc. believed they had access to world ending technology they wouldn’t stop, they’d keep going so that the U.S. could have a monopoly on it. And then we’d need a chastened figure ala Oppenheimer to right the balance again.
  - qwytw 3y ago
    > The push for the bomb was an international arms race — America against Russia Was it? US (and initially UK) didn't really face any real competition at all until the war was already over and they had the bomb. The Soviets then just stole American designs and iterated on top of them.
    - femiagbabiaka 3y ago
      You know that now, with the benefit of history. At the time the fear of someone else developing the bomb first was real, and the Soviet Union knew about the Manhattan project: https://www.atomicarchive.com/history/cold-war/page-9.html https://www.atomicarchive.com/history/cold-war/page-9.html.
      - qwytw 3y ago
        Isn't this mainly about what happened after the war and developing then hydrogen bomb? Did anyone seriously believe during WW2 that the Nazis/Soviets could be the first to develop a nuclear weapon (I don't really know to be fair)?
        femiagbabiaka 3y ago
        A lot of it happened after the war, but the Nazis had their own nuclear program that was highly infiltrated by the CIA, and whose progress was tracked against. Considering how late Teller's mechanism for detonation was developed, the race against time was real.