[ExI] Watson on NOVA

[Richard Loosemore]

David Lubkin wrote:
> Richard Loosemore wrote:
> 
>> 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.
> 
> You hope.
> 
> I'm as strong a technophilic extropian as any, but I'm leery of Bet Your 
> Species confidence. Yes, pursue AGI, MNT, SETI, genemod. But take 
> adequate precautions.

No doubt about it.  I am entirely with you.  In fact I consider attempts 
to deploy nanotech at this stage in our development to be dangerous.

I hope you are not automatically assuming that I would take no 
precautions.  My mind is fuly focussed on that issue.  And since I am 
steeped in the ideas surrounding the techniques that should be used, I 
already know what kinds of precautions and how much (in general terms) 
they could be trusted.

I think many people who are in the dark about the technical side of such 
things see only impossibilities.

By all means let's get into a discussion about the technical aspects of 
AGI safety, sometime.  Anything would be better than the level of 
uninformed speculation that is the norm on these lists.


Richard Loosemore