<div dir="ltr"><div><div style="font-size:small" class="gmail_default">20 years ago, I wrote a story that made the case that the very best aligned AI, coupled with human desires, could cause the race to go extinct. Nobody has ever refuted the central idea in that story.<br></div><br>Keith<br></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Jul 16, 2026 at 11:18 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-7821491959515057460"><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" lang="EN-US"><div class="m_-7821491959515057460WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><div style="border-color:rgb(225,225,225) currentcolor currentcolor;border-style:solid none none;border-width:1pt medium medium;padding:3pt 0in 0in"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> John Clark <<a href="mailto:johnkclark@gmail.com" target="_blank">johnkclark@gmail.com</a>> <br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, 16 July, 2026 10:54 AM<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:spike@rainier66.com" target="_blank">spike@rainier66.com</a><br><b>Cc:</b> ExI chat list <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] AI 2040<u></u><u></u></span></p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">On Thu, Jul 16, 2026 at 10:29<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span>AM <<a href="mailto:spike@rainier66.com" target="_blank">spike@rainier66.com</a>> wrote:<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br></span> <u></u><u></u></p><blockquote style="border-color:currentcolor currentcolor currentcolor rgb(204,204,204);border-style:none none none solid;border-width:medium medium medium 1pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in"><blockquote style="border-color:currentcolor currentcolor currentcolor rgb(204,204,204);border-style:none none none solid;border-width:medium medium medium 1pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black">Plan<span class="m_-7821491959515057460m-8462985276925624786gmaildefault"> A</span></span></u></b><u></u><u></u></p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border-color:currentcolor currentcolor currentcolor rgb(204,204,204);border-style:none none none solid;border-width:medium medium medium 1pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in"><p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border-color:currentcolor currentcolor currentcolor rgb(204,204,204);border-style:none none none solid;border-width:medium medium medium 1pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in"><div><blockquote style="border-color:currentcolor currentcolor currentcolor rgb(204,204,204);border-style:none none none solid;border-width:medium medium medium 1pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">>…This Plan, the one they like the best and the one I hate the most, is to coordinate between the US and China to slow the development of AI…</span></b><u></u><u></u></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"> </span></b><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">The notion that the US and China are the AI players that matter understates Israel. </span></i><u></u><u></u></p></div></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">>…Good point.<span class="m_-7821491959515057460gmaildefault"> 14 Israelis have won Nobel prizes and that is a huge number for such a tiny country. </span> </span></b><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-7821491959515057460gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">John K Clark<u></u><u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-7821491959515057460gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-7821491959515057460gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-7821491959515057460gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-7821491959515057460gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-7821491959515057460gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Ja there is that, but specifically in the area of software development, they are towering giants, never mind brains per capita (is there a Nobel prize for software (there aughta be.)) They figured out how to do some software things that the US couldn’t do, even though we yanks threw a a ton of money at it. In the end, the Israelis won the contract. Their software tech is now part of their Iron Dome. We built the rockets, the propulsion system, the vehicle controls hardware, the kill vehicle, the kill vehicle controls software, the mobile carrier, then Israelis wrote the system level control software and the simulator. <u></u><u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-7821491959515057460gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-7821491959515057460gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">That’s been over 25 years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday. Oh that was a truly bad ego buster for yank controls engineers. They whooped our gentile asses in system-level controls software, beat us in every competition in that category. I was primarily a hardware guy, but I have friends who were most demoralized. One left the company and went to live in Israel. He never wrote to us.<u></u><u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-7821491959515057460gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-7821491959515057460gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">spike <u></u><u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><blockquote style="border-color:currentcolor currentcolor currentcolor rgb(204,204,204);border-style:none none none solid;border-width:medium medium medium 1pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"> </span></b><u></u><u></u></p></div></blockquote></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>
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