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CarlShulman comments on Wanted: "The AIs will need humans" arguments - Less Wrong Discussion

7 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 14 June 2012 11:01AM

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Comment author: timtyler 15 June 2012 10:31:41PM *  4 points [-]

One of the categories is "They Will Need Us" - claims that AI is no big risk, because AI will always have a need of something that humans have, and that they will therefore preserve us.

I claim something like this. Specifically, I claim that a broad range of superintelligences will preserve their history, and run historical simuations, to help them understand the world. Many possible superintelligences will study their own origins intensely - in order to help them to understand the possible forms of aliens which they might encounter in the future. So, humans are likely to be preserved because superintelligences need us instrumentally - as objects of study.

This applies to (e.g.) gold atom maximisers, with no shred of human values. I don't claim it for all superintelligences, though - or even 99% of those likely to be built.

Comment author: CarlShulman 19 June 2012 06:44:36AM *  3 points [-]

I agree with this, but the instrumental scientific motivation to predict hostile aliens that might be encountered in space:

1) doesn't protect quality-of-life or lifespan for the simulations, brains-in-vats, and Truman Show inhabitants, indeed it suggests poor historical QOL levels and short lifespans;

2) seems likely to consume only a tiny portion of all resources available to an interstellar civilization, in light of diminishing returns.

Comment author: gwern 19 June 2012 03:05:49PM 0 points [-]

2) seems likely to consume only a tiny portion of all resources available to an interstellar civilization, in light of diminishing returns.

Would that be due to the proportions between the surface and volume of a sphere, or just the general observation that the more you investigate an area without finding anything the less likely anything exists?

Comment author: CarlShulman 19 June 2012 09:51:28PM 1 point [-]

The latter: as you put ever more ridiculous amounts of resources into modeling aliens you'll find fewer insights per resource unit, especially actionable insights.