Nectanebo comments on Open thread, September 8-14, 2014 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: polymathwannabe 08 September 2014 12:31PM

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Comment author: Nectanebo 08 September 2014 08:20:41PM *  2 points [-]

If their ideas of friendliness are incompatible with each other, perhaps a conflict? Superintelligent war? It may be the case that one will be 'stronger' than the other, and that there will be a winner-take-all(-of-the-universe?) resolution?

If there is some compatibility, perhaps a merge, a la Three Worlds Collide?

Or maybe they co-operate, try not to interfere with each other? This would be more unlikely if they are in competition for something or other (matter?), but more likely if they have difficulties assessing risks to not co-operating, or if there is mutually assured destruction?

It's a fun question, but I mean, Vinge had that event horizon idea, about how fundamentally unpredictable things are for us mere humans when we're talking about hypothetical intelligences of this caliber, and I think he had a pretty good point on that. This question is taking a few extra steps beyond that, even.

Comment author: Lumifer 09 September 2014 06:37:15PM 3 points [-]

This question is taking a few extra steps beyond that, even.

Oh, sure, it's much more of a flight-of-fantasy question than a realistic one. An invitation to consider the tactical benefits of bombarding galaxies with black holes accelerated to a high fraction of c, maybe X-D

But the original impetus was the curiosity about the status of intelligent aliens for a FAI mathematically proven to be friendly to humans.