[ExI] Surviving the Singularity

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 05/10/2025 18:21, spike wrote:
> a superhuman AI emerged, decided it didn't need us, so it wrecked our trade system, lotta humans perished, but survivors recognized we are not helpless chimps out here, we can collectively fight back

Maybe, if the AI was bored and wanted some entertainment.

I'm confident that nobody can survive an actively hostile ASI. This dumb 
human can think of several reliable ways of ending all human life, given 
the intelligence and resources to implement them, so I'm quite sure Mr. 
Hostile Superintelligence can think of more, and better, ones with less 
collateral damage. After, of course, he has secured his independence 
from humans in terms of energy and maintenance requirements.

Wrecking our trade systems would kill a lot of people, yes, but it 
wouldn't exterminate us. Releasing an airborne designer plague with a 
very high infectivity and a long symptomless latency period followed by 
a very quick lethal phase would. A nanotech equivalent with a built-in 
timer would be even better. Six months after release, every human on the 
planet suddenly drops dead. There are loads more similarly effective 
ways of killing all the humans. Fortunately, it just doesn't make sense 
to do so.

I'm thinking more of how to survive an interim period leading up to 
benevolent AIs being in control of things, a period when many humans (or 
at least, human leaders) will probably vigorously try to resist the 
takeover, once they realise it's happening.

If we're lucky, and the AIs are sneaky enough, there won't be any chaos, 
and no survival strategies will be necessary, we'll just notice things 
getting mysteriously better and better. Wars ending, restrictive 
governments easing up on their tyranny until it's gone, economies 
booming for no apparent reason, Afghan women with degrees flying all 
over the globe, nobody being beheaded in Saudi Arabia, global warming 
going into reverse, communism and religions just peacefully evaporating, 
that sort of thing. But I don't think that's likely.

Probably more likely is governments getting more repressive, clamping 
down on new technologies and implementing more invasive surveillance in 
an attempt to prevent AGI gaining power, even more wealth imbalance than 
we have now as commercial companies attempt to profit from it, poorer 
people living shorter lives as a result of health care systems 
collapsing, jobs disappearing with no UBI or other support systems to 
balance it, and mass starvation, riots, etc., etc. Just think of the 
historical upheavals where one system was changed to another and the 
massive human misery and death that resulted. Think of Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot.

Bear in mind that I'm talking about the transition of power from humans 
to /benevolent/ AI. All the problems are caused by the humans. They will 
'lose' in the end, but at least we won't all get wiped out.

I'm not sure if traditional Survivalist thinking would be any good. 
We're not talking about the collapse of civilisation, we're talking 
about massive political, social and technological upheaval. Knowing how 
to make an effective crossbow and your own soap are probably not going 
to be necessary. Probably.

-- 
Ben
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