[ExI] ai is the easy road

[Ben Zaiboc]

Keith Henson wrote:

> I am sorry to say, but slaughtering each other is functional and rational from the viewpoint of genes ...

Yes, of course, but do we want to remain at the level of beasts that serve their genes?

To me, at least, being human implies transcending the biological imperatives that have dominated the last couple of billion years. We have been doing that for a while. We have decoupled, to a degree, sex from reproduction. We are starting to override or take control of, some biological processes. We are on the verge of moving medicine from 'let nature fix the problem' to 'we will fix it'. This will continue, and accelerate. We may be in the last period where biology controls our destinies, and entering the period where the viewpoint of genes becomes irrelevant to what we are and what we do.
For a long time, we have been creatures 'suspended between beasts and angels'. We are, I think, beginning to enter an age where we can progress from that state to becoming fully 'angels', and leave the 'beast' behind. There's still quite some way to go, of course, but I do think that we are now at the earliest stages of being able to make the transition, of being able to cast off the legacy of biology. I'll say again what I've said before: Biology is like an abusive parent, we wouldn't be here without it, but we need to get the hell away from it as soon as possible, if we are to survive and thrive.

Evolutionary biology is a useful tool for understanding how we came to be what we are. It should not determine what we are to be.
---
Ben

"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." - Pablo Casals, via Albert Einstein

On Monday, 12 October 2026 at 20:34, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:

> sOn Mon, Oct 12, 2026 at 1:50 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> On 11/10/2026 21:27, spike wrote:
>>>
>>> This study has the uncomfortable ring of truth:
>>>
>>> Using AI for Just 10 Minutes Erodes Your Ability to Persist at Hard Things | Research UC Berkeley
>>>
>>> I am not accusing others. I too have been guilty of just asking Grok rather than thinking it through or calculating it out.
>>>
>>> Another possible future scenario is that AI doesn’t kill everybody, but gradually takes over our thinking by being the wise old uncle who knows everything. It is easier for the kids to just ask him for the answer rather than figure it out the traditional way.
>>
>> It might be arguable that this is not only inevitable, but desirable.
>>
>> Humans never evolved as logical or rational thinkers. That type of thinking is difficult for us, it's not our strong point. Yes, we have used it to create our current collection of civilisations, with varying levels of success, but look at all the problems we still have. We use our logical thinking to create pretty remarkable machines, then use them to slaughter and oppress each other. It might be argued that we should stick to what we do best (intuitive, emotional thinking), and let other kinds of being (AIs) do the kind of thinking they arguably already are or almost certainly will be, better at.
>>
>> It seems inevitable that some type of AI will eventually take over the running of things, and hopefully they will be able to stop us from slaughtering each other.
>
> I am sorry to say, but slaughtering each other is functional and rational from the viewpoint of genes. Humans long ago escaped our predators becoming the top predator. That left us with no other choice when the population grew larger than the resources needed to support it but to kill each other. We have wired in (genetic, EP) mechanisms to detect and respond at the group level to perceived resource shortages. This is complicated by technology sometimes increasing the resources faster than the population growth and the development of reliable birth control.
>
> Ghod knows how this will play out. The environment is changing faster than we can keep up with it.
>
> Keith
>
>> This phenomenon of AI making people mentally lazy could be a step on the way.
>>
>> Who knows, once they are in charge, they could even help us to get better at rational thinking, and controlling or even eliminating our self-destructive tendencies.
>>
>> Or they could kill us all, but that seems unlikely to me. There would be no point to it, and it would be destroying something unique, interesting and valuable, which seems the kind of thing that something very powerful, but not very rational might do (which is an argument for developing superintelligent AI as soon as possible).
>> --
>> Ben
>> "The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." - Pablo Casals, via Albert Einstein
>>
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