[ExI] thinking about the unthinkable

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 31/08/2026 12:33, John K Clark wrote:
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> On Mon, Aug 31, 2026 at 4:13 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
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>     > I'm certain there are much better ways to wipe out the human race than cutting off the electricity. Ways that wouldn't inconvenience AIs (any more than the total lack of humans would, anyway), and that would be 100% effective (i.e. The Humans Are Dead. All of them). Some of them would probably be unforeseeable by humans, as well, so pretty much impossible to defend against.
>
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> Sounds like you're talking about AI creating "Mirror Life" bacteria. The human immune system, and that of every other organism on the planet, would be unable to destroy or even recognize a mirror organism. Synthetic mirror bacteria would have no natural predators or competitors and thus with exponential speed spread through the entire biosphere. 


No, I'm not.

At least, not just that. It might be a feasible way of destroying all human life, but it would have the disadvantage of destroying all other kinds of life too (If that was regarded as a disadvantage). It also suffers from the drawback that /we can imagine it/.

My point is that AI could devise ways of destroying human life that we can't. Ways that we are incapable of anticipating, or even imagining. As a puny human, I can think of a few ways of doing this, as I'm sure are many others, but I'm talking about the things that we can't imagine. Things that we aren't even capable of coming close to figuring out.
-- 
Ben