Donated $125.
The very popular blog Wait But Why has published the first part of a two-part explanation/summary of AI risks and superintelligence, and it looks like the second part will be focused on Friendly AI. I found it very clear, reasonably thorough and appropriately urgent without signaling paranoia or fringe-ness. It may be a good article to share with interested friends.
Update: Part 2 is now here.
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Recently I was with a group of mathematicians and philosophers. One philosopher asked me whether I believed man was a machine. I replied, “Do you really think it makes any difference?” He most earnestly replied, “Of course! To me it is the most important question in philosophy.”
...I imagine that if my friend finally came to the conclusion that he were a machine, he would be infinitely crestfallen. I think he would think: “My God! How horrible! I am only a machine!” But if I should find out I were a machine, my attitude would be totally different. I would say: “How amazing! I never before realized that machines could be so marvelous!
Raymond Smullyan, This Book Needs No Title, taking joy in the merely real
In some situations you can keep people from fighting the hypothetical by asking a question which explicitly states the point of the hypothetical, instead of asking something vague.
E.g., for Newcomb's paradox, instead of asking "What do you choose?" (potential answer: "I don't really need a million dollars, so I'll just take the box with the $1000") ask "which choice of box(es) maximizes expected monetary gain?"
E.g., for the Monty Hall problem, instead of asking "Would you switch doors?" (potential answers: "I'd probably just stick with my gut" or "I like goats!") ask "does switching or not switching maximize your chances of getting the car?"
E.g., for the Prisoner's Dilemma, instead of "What do you... (read more)
With the truth, all given facts harmonize; but with what is false, the truth soon hits a wrong note.
-- Aristotle in The Nicomachean Ethics, pointing out entangled truths and contagious lies
Took the survey!
Also, a frequent lurker who has finally made an account!
Robert Charles Wilson, Darwinia