[ExI] Watson on NOVA

[spike]

>...On Behalf Of Richard Loosemore
Subject: Re: [ExI] Watson on NOVA

spike wrote:


> Richard Loosemore wrote:
> Armchair theorizing only, I am afraid.  Guesswork.

Ja!  Granted, I don't know how this will work.
...

>In fact, the AGI would be designed to feel empathy *with* the human
species.  It would feel itself to be one of us.  According to your logic,
then, it would design its children and to do the same.  That leads to a
revised conclusion (if we do nothing more than stick to the simple logic
here):  the AGI and all its descendents will have the same, stable, empathic
motivations.  Nowhere along the line will any of them feel inclined to
create something dangerous...Richard Loosemore

I hope you are right.

At the risk of overposting today, do let me get very specific.  My parents
split when I was a youth, remarried.  My wife's parents are living, so
between us we have six parents.  In all six cases, she and I are the
descendants most capable of giving them assistance in every way, financial,
maintenance of property, judgment in medical decisions, etc.  All six of
those parents are now in their 70s and all six have daunting medical
challenges, immediate and scary ones.

I also have a four year old son.  In a very real sense, those six parents
compete with him directly for my attention, my financial resources, my time.
No surprise to the parents here: my son wins every round.  I always put his
needs before those of my parents.  I wish them well and help where I can,
but my son gets my first and best always.

I am human.  If we succeed in making an AGI with human emotions and human
motives, then it does as humans do.  I can see it being more concerned about
its offspring than its parents.  I am that way too.  It's offspring may or
may not care about its grandparents and much as it's parents did.  Our
models are not sufficiently sophisticated to predict that, but Richard, I am
reluctant to bet the future of humankind on it, even if I know that without
it humankind is doomed anyway.

spike