[ExI] stealth singularity

spike spike66 at att.net
Mon Sep 20 21:26:55 UTC 2010


On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 3:19 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

 

Can you imagine *any* circumstances whereby an emergent AI would decide to
stay under cover, at least for a while?  I can.  Anyone else?



1) AI:us :: us:cockroaches...  Jebediah Moore
 
 
 
Jeb there is a ton of stuff here, more than I have time to answer, but I
like your thinking.
 
As Damien showed with his AI roadmap a few days ago, written ten years ago,
there is plenty of thoughtspace here.
 
For now, let me just talk about number 1) AI : human :: human : cockroaches.
 
That is one way to look at it, but I would counterpropose this analogy:
 
AI : human :: human : bird.
 
The reason I want to go down that road is that it is easy for me to imagine
that even a supercapable AI will observe that for some reason, there are a
few things that humans can do better than AI, and it doesn't really
understand how we do it.
 
At my last trip to the ranch in Oregon, I was out by the river.  An eagle
swooped down, went into a flat glide over the surface, then snatched a fish
right out of the water.  It was a most astonishing sight.  I had heard
eagles can do that, but seeing it was a knockout.  Isn't it interesting that
humans cannot do that?  Sure we can catch fish: we can hook the hapless
beast, we can net it, we can shoot it and scoop the pieces out afterwards,
but we cannot build a machine that can fly down, skim over and snatch the
scaley bastard out of the water.  Our feedback control theory isn't
sufficiently advanced to do that, and it isn't clear to me that we could do
it even with sufficient resources given current theory.  We don't know how
an eagle can do it, given their little bit of brain.  Impressive.
 
Point: human intellectual abilities are supersets of almost all things that
almost all beast do, but there are a few things a few beasts can do that are
outside our ability.  You can likely think of your own examples.
 
Consider an AI realizing that there are a few things that humans just do
better than they do, such as writing jokes.  Compare the following two jokes
for instance:
 
1.  Two transistors go into the bar, one says "I will have a volt of
positive charge, and my girl here will have a half a volt of negative."  The
bartender gives them a puzzled look and says "But...I see she is a
milli-Farad, so why don't you just give her 500 micro-Coulomb of yours?"
 
2.  Two tourists at a bus stop in Germany, BMW driver comes up asking
directions but all he gets are blank stares.  "Sprechen sie deutsche?"
Blank stares.  "Parlez-vous francais?"  Nothing.  "Parlo Italiano??  Habla
Espaniol???" he demands.  Nothing.  Roars off in a huff.  One tourist turns
to the other and says "Billy Joe, me and you aughta learn to talk one of
them furrin launguages."  The other, "Ah don't cotton to it Bobby Jack.
That there feller knowed four of them, didn't do him no good."
 
Imaine the AI can compose jokes like the first one, but not like the second.
It is puzzled at how we do it and why humans like the second but not the
first, whereas AIs likes the first but doesn't understand what is funny
about the second.  It wants to understand that paradox.  So it watches us.
 
spike
 
 
 


  _____  

From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Jebadiah Moore
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2010 1:00 PM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [ExI] stealth singularity


On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 3:19 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:


Can you imagine *any* circumstances whereby an emergent AI would decide to
stay under cover, at least for a while?  I can.  Anyone else?



1) AI:us :: us:cockroaches
2) AI doesn't perceive us at all as individuals; instead, it's him and the
Earth, and they're playing a game
3) Benevolent AI predicts that if we can upload, it'll create a divide
between uploaders and non-uploaders, and one side will wipe out the other
4) Benevolent AI predicts that if we can upload before we understand physics
more fully, we'll stop worrying about physics, then forget about the
substrate, then perish in the collapse of the sun, whereas if it hides out
we'll figure out physics enough to save ourselves
5) AI predicts that uploads will compete/merge until there is just one, and
that one will kill him
6) Benevolent AI sees hostile aliens coming, so builds weaponry, but wants
to keep it hidden from the humans so that we don't kill ourselves
7) Benevolent AI wants to provide us with advances, but is waiting for the
right memetic environment

-- 
Jebadiah Moore
http://blog.jebdm.net


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