cousin_it comments on Natural selection defeats the orthogonality thesis - Less Wrong

-13 Post author: aberglas 29 September 2014 08:52AM

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Comment author: cousin_it 08 October 2014 12:40:56AM *  0 points [-]

Yeah, if the paperclipper values a paperclip today more than a paperclip tomorrow, then I suppose it will lose out to other AIs that have a lower time discounting rate and can delay gratification for longer. Unless these other AIs also use time discounting, e.g. the power-hungry AI could value a 25% chance of ultimate power today the same as a 50% chance tomorrow.

But then again, such contests can happen only if the two AIs arise almost simultaneously. If one of them has a head start, it will try to eliminate potential competition quickly, because that's the utility-maximizing thing to do.

I suppose that's the main reason to be pessimistic about FAI. It's not just that FAI is more constrained in its actions, it also takes longer to build, and a few days' head start is enough for UAI to win.