[ExI] Unfrendly AI is a mistaken idea.

[BillK]

On 6/17/07, Samantha Atkins wrote:
> Actually something more personally frightening is a future where no
> amount of upgrades or at least upgrades available to me will allow me
> to be sufficiently competitive.    At least this is  frightening an a
> scarcity society where even basic subsistence is by no means
> guaranteed.   I suspect that many are frightened by the possibility
> that humans, even significantly enhanced humans, will be second class
> by a large and exponentially increasing margin.    In those
> circumstances I hope that our competition and especially Darwinian
> models are not universal.
>


I think it might be helpful to define what you mean by 'competitive
disadvantage'.

If you take the average of anything, then by definition half of
humanity is already at a competitive disadvantage. And there are so
many different areas of interest, that an individual doesn't have to
be among the best in every sphere. Everybody is at a competitive
disadvantage in some areas. Find your niche and spend your time there.

Advanced intelligences will be spending their time doing things that
are incomprehensible to humans. They won't be interested in human
hobbies.
(Apart from possibly eating all humans).

At present humans have a wide range of different abilities and our
society appears to give great rewards to people with little
significant abilities.
(Think pop singers, sports stars, children of millionaires,
'personalities', etc.).

The great majority of scientists, for example, live lives of relative
poverty, with few of the trappings of economic success. Are they
'uncompetitive'?

Economic success, in general, suggests that 'niceness' is a
competitive disadvantage. Success seems to go with being more ruthless
and nasty than all your competitors.
(Like evolution in this respect).

It may be that being at a competitive disadvantage will not be that
bad. Providing you have some freedom to do what you want to do. I can
think of many areas that I am quite happy to leave to other people to
compete in.

The point of having a 'civilized' society is that the weaker should be
protected to some extent from powerful predators, even when the
predators are other humans.


BillK