X-Message-Number: 27992
References: <>
From: Kennita Watson <>
Subject: Re: Singularity & other threadz
Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 11:26:21 -0700

Flavonoid wrote:

> Meanwhile, if anyone else would care to present something beyond a
> feely-good "it can't do any harm" sentiment, such as valid reasons  
> why they
> think the Singularity would not evolve rapidly to the point of  
> seeing human
> existence as irrelevant, plus having the unstoppable power to take  
> care of
> what It would view as the problem, I welcome more posts, before I  
> lay into
> the ones already presented.

I don't think there will be a single "the Singularity"
(like Colossus) -- multiple groups/entities will be
working on human-level intelligence, and different
instances will have different motivations (assuming
they have motivations at all, as we think of them; the
whole concept is very organic-life-based, if not
primate-based).  If Eliezer's "friendly AI" or any of
its cousins should arise first, we have no problem.

Even prodigious intelligence with no hands or feet can
do little harm.  Even if humans are shortsighted enough
to provide hands and feet, presumably they will want to
keep some for themselves.

If human existence is irrelevant, what motivation would
a super-human intelligence have for wiping it out?

If multiple super-human intelligences arise, they may
see more reason to wipe each other out than us.

Humans only try to wipe out ants when they get in our
way, and even then only the ones that our in our way,
not all of them.  We wiped out smallpox because it was
trying to wipe us out.

We don't occupy the same ecological niche as computers.

Even if computers decided they wanted to turn all
available matter into more computers, wiping out humans
seems an extremely inefficient way to do it -- there
are a huge number of metric tons of matter under our
feet that doesn't fight back, not to mention that if
intelligences are really super-human, they'll head for
sources of a lot more matter than on this piddly
little planet -- Jupiter, maybe.

Enough for now -- I have a lot to do today.

Live long and prosper,
Kennita
--
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
none but ourselves can free our minds.
           -- Bob Marley, "Redemption Song"

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