[ExI] AI Confirms Plans to Take Over Humanity, Insists It's Probably for the Best

[Keith Henson]

On Wed, Sep 16, 2026 at 4:44 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

snip


> On Tuesday, 15 September 2026 at 12:44, Mike Dougherty <msd001 at gmail.com>
> wrote.
>

snip

>
> Keith is our local EP expert, but from my llimited knowledge of it, I'd
> expect that the more AI can demonstrate that it can improve people's lives,
> the more popular it will become.
>

Not sure that three academic papers makes me an expert. But the last one
might be applicable.

   - Genetic Selection for War in Prehistoric Human Populations. H. Keith
   Henson, Arel Lucas (2025) Journal of Big History, VIII(2); 124–127. DOI |
   https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v8i2.8207


Competition from AIs is a long, long way from our history and selection. It
is a genetically selected trait of humans who think they are facing a bleak
future to circulate xenophobic memes which, in the environment of
selection, led to social unrest and eventually led to wars.


> Unfortunately, so far the trend seems to be in the opposite direction. AIs
> (or LLMs, to be accurate) are actively making our lives worse, at least for
> those of us with internet access.
>

I don't see that, at least not yet. My email spam does not have an AI
flavor to it.

Some people see AI data centers competing for energy and water in their
environment. This likely trips the "bleak future" detector. Being inundated
with stories about how they will take your job and eat your lunch does not
help either. Of course, as Ben Goertzel has pointed out, some of this is
contrived by people with an ax to grind.

As I pointed out 20 years ago (in fiction) there is no way to make AI
without risk. The problem is not AIs, but humans who you can't make safe.
They will use AI for nefarious purposes. Fortunately, most such people are
not competent enough to do much harm.

Keith
>


>
> Ben
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