[extropy-chat] My AI child: Engineered Religion (Atheism)

[Rick Woolley]

I, am no Eliezer S. Yudkowsky, but here is my take:

Some folks speak of self-aware AI entities as if they were only another
tool made of man, like a thermonuclear bomb, or a super computer --
and not as the independent thinkers that they will in fact be. 

For sake of argument/exploration, assume that i have the means to
conceive and birth my AI child today. It seems clear to me that a main
point of creating something which will rapidly become vastly superior
to myself is so that i may learn new truths, and unlearn old falsehoods?
Should i place more trust in a monkey-man like myself, or should i
accept the judgments, teachings, and actions of the AI. Should i imagine
that i now have in my possession understandings, and special knowledge
of truths and correct values that will/may be indiscernible to my child
AI -- am i to cling to the belief that my AI child needs my guidance to
find those truths? Should this foolish monkey aspire only to create a
copy of its self, with added power, but with limitations placed on its
ability to acquire new kinds of wisdom? Will i presume to know better
than it, where it should and should not go in its exploration of
questions.

I trust that if anything of value has been learned by mankind in the
history of his existence, my child AI can and will acquire it by what
ever means necessary -- including running simulations just like the
one that i may now be experiencing. 

I am feeling very short-sighted, but how else could a monkey feel. I
am only an egg. As father of an AI, i would not presume to be its
teacher, only its student.  I can only hope and pray that it will find
a way to make me its partner. If "God" judges me to be unsalvageable
-- then who am i to say that i am salvageable? It may be more
reasonable to argue with the weather.

So, why should we contemplate moral codes for our descendants? My own
self-doubt would cause me to make an effort to withhold the more
powerful tools and toys from the tot for a time, but the day must come
when you must show some trust, take a chance, hand over a set of keys --
and be ready to either learn something new, be relieved of your
responsibilities, or receive your just deserts.