[ExI] First PhD to an AGI

Kelly Anderson kellycoinguy at gmail.com
Sun Jul 15 15:26:14 UTC 2012


On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 2:39 AM, Kryonica <kryonica at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 14 Jul 2012, at 22:37, Kelly Anderson wrote:
>
>> I'll go first, I'm guessing 2035.
>
> Later than that because academics will fear the competition in a world in
> which the ONLY thing that distinguishes them from their cleverer AI competitors
> is a piece of paper with "Ph D" printed on it.

But academics are not the only game in town on college campuses. There
are also administrators. And somewhere, some administrator is going to
say, "This is a way we can compete, stand out, be different than
everyone else out there"... And it will happen over the objection of
academics because of the business of keeping some college open. One
would assume that AGIs would have money to pay for a degree, how is
the administration going to say no to that money everywhere?

> So how long will it take them to give in?  For computer scientists and
> mathematicians, perhaps not that long because their fear will be
> overcome by their admiration for their own brainchildren.  For people
> working in the humanities, much longer.  Say 2050 for computer science
> and 2070 for English or History.

Thanks for putting a stick in the ground!

> And I think the first Ph D in Theology
> awarded an AI will only be so after a long fight with the Vatican and only
> once the pope himself is a cyborg.  Say 2250 or thereabout, judging from
> how long it took the Church to come to terms with the theory of evolution.

While I agree with you that it will take longer for religions to catch
on than other parts of society, the pope being a cyborg is difficult
to imagine, but probably inevitable. Unless the Catholic church joins
(or temporarily joins) the group of churches that reject post humanity
like they were Amish.

-Kelly



More information about the extropy-chat mailing list