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I literally wrote an article about this in Wired more than twenty years ago and nothing has changed. My basic argument: machines will achieve life long before

I literally wrote an article about this in Wired more than twenty years ago and nothing has changed. My basic argument: machines will achieve life long before they achieve consciousness. They have evolved with us so far and will continue to do so. The worst-case scenario is that they will eclipse us in importance, and obviously this has probably already happened with corporations - we are their gut flora and they trample us with impunity - but when you build a vast system, you tend to keep the components in place. The story that the design constraints of the Space Shuttle were ultimately shaped by the size of Roman roads is a myth, but it communicates an essential truth: systems tend to outlive their intended purpose. The Roman Empire turned into a church when it couldn't survive any other way, and in its church form it remains to this day one of the biggest property owners in Europe. If you think a new life form will soon exist, the bad news is you probably don't know jack shit about AI research, but the good news is that the best possible way to survive in this unlikely event would be to make yourself part of the new life form. These "life forms" need us to procreate and function in the same way flowers need bees. AIs will certainly kill some people, but humanity itself is in much more danger from its environmental irresponsibility than its ingenuity.

dinergy 12y ago
I just wanted to point out how awesome your user id is in relation to this thread. :)
rl3 12y ago
Artificial general intelligence capable of recursive self-improvement. That's really the concept which underlies the heart of the debate, and how people can so casually declare it hype and not give it serious consideration is beyond me. It almost seems self-evident to me that such a thing could be incredibly dangerous, the only question then being how close we are to developing it. >If you think a new life form will soon exist, the bad news is you probably don't know jack shit about AI research, ... https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/2mh8tn/elon_musks_deleted_edge_comment_from_yesterday_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/2mh8tn/elon_mus...
- waps 12y ago
  I feel it would only be really dangerous if there is 1 AI that clearly outstrips the others and that can expand itself. If there were an AI community just like there is a human community, the dangers would be much, much less. Anything that is really capable of being an independent individual is going to need to grow up, and the first batch (at the very least) is going to grow up with human "parents". It would seem to me that having such programs would be incredibly useful. They can do so much things that humans just can't do. They would be able to move around in a range of bodies, as they please. For instance having a huge body to put up large buildings in hours, having tiny bodies to simply crawl into a fiber optic cable to repair it. For the very brave amongst those AIs, putting copies of 1000 AI programs and basic production facilities into a spaceship and firing it at a neighboring solar system, ... Those AIs will be as dangerous or peaceful as those people make them, and whatever ideology they grow up in will last for quite a while. I do think humanity will die, but it will die in a very unique way : there will simply be no need for humans to procreate, and very, very, very slowly that will lead to extinction. Everybody involved will be happy about it, and everything about us, our culture, our technology, and our children will live on. I believe for quite a while humans and AIs will "interbreed", in the sense that humans and AIs will come together and choose to have an AI "baby", so when I say "our children will live on", for a lot of people that will be a very literal thing, and the "thing" that lives on will be something that's as real and as much a part and a continuation of their family as a "real" baby. It will have a name, it will have worked itself into trouble and have been rescued by it's parents 100 times, it will sit down and start crying without realizing what's going on the first time it's in a body that runs our of battery just like baby that's hungry, it will learn and go to school, it will be bullied and it will bully, ... And I'm sure that there will be a few "pure" human community, in the beginning a lot of racist-based ones, which will kill themselves, and a few that remain for very, very long, something like the Amish of today.
hurin 12y ago
While corporations are a good analogy - they still need human actors to function; the threat of AI is that it will not need human beings to function. This isn't a question of physical death it's a question of whether the human race has any place in the future other than as a historical footnote.

dinergy 12y ago

I just wanted to point out how awesome your user id is in relation to this thread. :)

rl3 12y ago

Artificial general intelligence capable of recursive self-improvement. That's really the concept which underlies the heart of the debate, and how people can so casually declare it hype and not give it serious consideration is beyond me. It almost seems self-evident to me that such a thing could be incredibly dangerous, the only question then being how close we are to developing it. >If you think a new life form will soon exist, the bad news is you probably don't know jack shit about AI research, ... https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/2mh8tn/elon_musks_deleted_edge_comment_from_yesterday_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/2mh8tn/elon_mus...

waps 12y ago
I feel it would only be really dangerous if there is 1 AI that clearly outstrips the others and that can expand itself. If there were an AI community just like there is a human community, the dangers would be much, much less. Anything that is really capable of being an independent individual is going to need to grow up, and the first batch (at the very least) is going to grow up with human "parents". It would seem to me that having such programs would be incredibly useful. They can do so much things that humans just can't do. They would be able to move around in a range of bodies, as they please. For instance having a huge body to put up large buildings in hours, having tiny bodies to simply crawl into a fiber optic cable to repair it. For the very brave amongst those AIs, putting copies of 1000 AI programs and basic production facilities into a spaceship and firing it at a neighboring solar system, ... Those AIs will be as dangerous or peaceful as those people make them, and whatever ideology they grow up in will last for quite a while. I do think humanity will die, but it will die in a very unique way : there will simply be no need for humans to procreate, and very, very, very slowly that will lead to extinction. Everybody involved will be happy about it, and everything about us, our culture, our technology, and our children will live on. I believe for quite a while humans and AIs will "interbreed", in the sense that humans and AIs will come together and choose to have an AI "baby", so when I say "our children will live on", for a lot of people that will be a very literal thing, and the "thing" that lives on will be something that's as real and as much a part and a continuation of their family as a "real" baby. It will have a name, it will have worked itself into trouble and have been rescued by it's parents 100 times, it will sit down and start crying without realizing what's going on the first time it's in a body that runs our of battery just like baby that's hungry, it will learn and go to school, it will be bullied and it will bully, ... And I'm sure that there will be a few "pure" human community, in the beginning a lot of racist-based ones, which will kill themselves, and a few that remain for very, very long, something like the Amish of today.

hurin 12y ago

While corporations are a good analogy - they still need human actors to function; the threat of AI is that it will not need human beings to function. This isn't a question of physical death it's a question of whether the human race has any place in the future other than as a historical footnote.