"The finger might also point at those who scared people about the dangers of AGI research but never took the effort to publicly distance themselves from extreme measures."
I absolutely agree. Personally I don't go around scaring people about AGI research because I don't find it scary. I also think Eliezer, at least, has done a reasonable job of distancing himself from 'extreme measures'.
"What if anyone gets killed as a result of not reading this thread because he was never exposed to the arguments of why it would be a really bad idea to violently oppose AGI research?"
Unfortunately, there are very few people in this thread making those arguments, and a large number making (in my view extremely bad) arguments for the other side...
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?