CronoDAS comments on A Less Wrong singularity article? - Less Wrong

28 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 17 November 2009 02:15PM

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Comment author: wedrifid 21 November 2009 06:04:04AM *  5 points [-]

Bruce Schneier beats people over the head with the notion DON'T DEFEND AGAINST MOVIE PLOTS! The "AI takes over the world" plot is influencing a lot of people's thinking. Unfriendly AGI, despite its potential power, may well have huge blind spots; mind design space is big!

I have not yet watched a movie where humans are casually obliterated by a superior force, be that a GAI or a technologically superior alien species. At least some of the humans always seem to have a fighting chance. The odds are overwhelming of course, but the enemy always has a blind spot that can be exploited. You list some of them here. They are just the kind of thing McKay deploys successfully against advanced nanotechnology. Different shows naturally give the AI different exploitable weaknesses. For the sake of the story such AIs are almost always completely blind to the most of the obvious weaknesses of humanity.

The whole 'overcome a superior enemy by playing to your strengths and exploiting their weakness' makes for great viewing but outside of the movies it is far less likely to play a part. The chance of creating an uFAI that is powerful enough to be a threat and launch some kind of attack and yet not be able to wipe out humans is negligible outside of fiction. Chimpanzees do not prevail over a civilisation with nuclear weapons. And no, the fact that they can beat us in unarmed close combat does not matter. They just die.

Comment author: CronoDAS 21 November 2009 06:14:53AM 0 points [-]

I have not yet watched a movie where humans are casually obliterated by a superior force, be that a GAI or a technologically superior alien species.

You didn't see the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film? ;)

Comment author: wedrifid 21 November 2009 06:22:23AM 0 points [-]

:) Well, maybe substitute 'some' for 'one' in the next sentence.

Comment author: timtyler 21 November 2009 07:19:32AM 1 point [-]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers_(1978_film)

...apparently has everyone getting it fairly quickly at the hands of aliens.