Let me get this straight: you want to recruit high-end geeks to combat a hypothetical threat from other very smart people who might invent computers so smart that they can program themselves to be way smarter than their inventors and rather quickly swing completely out of control and cause "human extinction."
How is this a problem? Do you read the news? Or look at television? If you can distract yourself from apocalyptic navel-gazing long enough to take in the world around us--and that does include you--you might observe that we are so much farther along on the march to that goal than the computers that we might create in some remote future like say 2060 that they will be long out of the running in the human extinction sweepstakes. If you did look around you might perceive credible estimates that by 2050 there will be 9 billion humans on this sad planet, all trying desperately to survive with 0 ocean fish available to feed them.
Humans:http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2007/pop952.doc.htm Fish: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hipbi-mn7by4mFZ6veqVQ0OEmu9Q.
Consider these two estimates and the firestorm of discussion and passionate reaction they've aroused. Not. Consider Iran. The Gulf of Mexico. North Korea. Atmospheric temperature and its consequent ice melt and rise in sea water.
Makes me wish AI was real and thriving. It could hardly be stupider than us. Could it?
Meantime you might want to reconsider and aim those striving young minds toward something real.
If you can distract yourself from apocalyptic navel-gazing
Hmm. I'm thinking you're probably not in the best position to play this card.
I've no idea if you'll stick around to see this - I can see this is your only comment, so I'm guessing you registered a throwaway account just to post this - but the fact that human extinction from AI is not a problem now does not mean it will never be a problem. 150 years ago, Earth's rising temperature 'and its consequent ice melt and rise in sea water' was a similar non-issue, and I think we'd both agree that it would have been better if people had started worrying about it earlier instead of later.
Now is the very last minute to apply for a Summer 2010 Visiting Fellowship. If you’ve been interested in SIAI for a while, but haven’t quite managed to make contact -- or if you’re just looking for a good way to spend a week or more of your summer -- drop us a line. See what an SIAI summer might do for you and the world.
(SIAI’s Visiting Fellow program brings volunteers to SIAI for anywhere from a week to three months, to learn, teach, and collaborate. Flights and room and board are covered. We’ve been rolling since June of 2009, with good success.)
Apply because:
Apply especially if:
(You don’t need all of the above; some is fine.)
Don’t be intimidated -- SIAI contains most of the smartest people I’ve ever met, but we’re also a very open community. Err on the side of sending in an application; then, at least we’ll know each other. (Applications for fall and beyond are also welcome; we’re taking Fellows on a rolling basis.)
If you’d like a better idea of what SIAI is, and what we’re aimed at, check out:
1. SIAI's Brief Introduction;
2. The Challenge projects;
3. Our 2009 accomplishments;
4. Videos from past Singularity Summits (the 2010 Summit will happen during this summer’s program, Aug 14-15 in SF; visiting Fellows will assist);
5. Comments from our last Call for Visiting Fellows; and/or
6. Bios of the 2009 Summer Fellows.
Or just drop me a line. Our application process is informal -- just send me an email at anna at singinst dot org with: (1) a resume/c.v. or similar information; and (2) a few sentences on why you’re applying. And we’ll figure out where to go from there.
Looking forward to hearing from you.