The difference is there are no hypothetical fat men who are near train lines. There are, however, really-existing AI researchers who have received death threats as a result of this kind of thinking.
The difference is there are no hypothetical fat men who are near train lines.
What are those thought experiments good for if there are no real-world approximations where they might be useful? What do you expect, absolute certainty? Sometimes consequentialist actions have to be made under uncertainty if the scope of the negative utility involved does outweigh it easily...do you disagree with this?
It's probably easier to build an uncaring AI than a friendly one. So, if we assume that someone, somewhere is trying to build an AI without solving friendliness, that person will probably finish before someone who's trying to build a friendly AI.
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further edit:
Wow, this is getting a rather stronger reaction than I'd anticipated. Clarification: I'm not suggesting practical measures that should be implemented. Jeez. I'm deep in an armchair, thinking about a problem that (for the moment) looks very hypothetical.
For future reference, how should I have gone about asking this question without seeming like I want to mobilize the Turing Police?