Re: Hiding AI research from Bad People was Re: OpenCog Concerns

From: J. Andrew Rogers (andrew@ceruleansystems.com)
Date: Tue Mar 25 2008 - 00:42:27 MDT


On Mar 24, 2008, at 9:55 PM, Jeff Herrlich wrote:
> I'll try to keep this minimally political in accordance with list
> rules. I think it is most realistic and most cautious to assume
> that various governments will take an interest in AGI, as proto-AGIs
> develop.

How are current nominal "proto-AGIs" distinguishable from the myriad
of other dead "proto-AGIs"? I keep seeing this assumption that
governments can magically discern real AGI from the hundreds of crap
AGI projects that they *thought* were "proto-AGI" over the years. It
seems to me that people need to re-calibrate their model of what
government can discern with respect to AGI.

Describe, in very strict terms, how a proto-AGI is discernible from
parlor-trick AGI. What scientific measure can we use to categorize
the two?

> For example, DARPA will often begin long-horizon, low probability
> projects, based on the small hope that something useful will come
> out of it. I think that government involvement may be unavoidable
> from a practical POV. [ I could be wrong, of course, but I figure
> it's safer to play it conservatively].

Non sequitur.

> From a strategic POV, I think that what we need to do is make the
> US government an "Allie" of Friendliness. Obviously, we would need
> to *effectively* convey the importance and ethical responsibility of
> the Singularity. But there are some aspects of the US gov's
> structure conducive to this. For example, our advocacy can be
> concentrated on the next US President - really, only one person
> needs to be genuinely convinced of the gravity of the situation.
> Presidential power will take care of the other logistics, or at
> least we can reasonably hope so. Of course, the more US politicians
> we can convince, the better. I'm not saying that the US government
> is totally perfect or anything - just that I think this is the
> "safest" approach.

This bit of pablum is delusional and mostly stupid, sorry. Not just
on one point, but several points, mostly because it lacks an
intersection with reality.

I think it is safe to say that this line of reasoning has no business
on the SL4 list, mostly because it is more platitude than "reasoning".

Cheers,

J. Andrew Rogers



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