From: Piaget Modeler (piagetmodeler@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Mar 06 2011 - 10:50:20 MST
Perhaps we should take Ray Kurzweil's idea to heart: we need spiritual machines.
What humans worry about is control: who we control and who controls us. Perhaps
we can move beyond control to transcendence, and engage AGI's in philosophical
inquiries into transcendence (perhaps along the lines of Sri Nisargardatta Maharaj).
If so, do we humans as a species need to move there first. Many of us are at different
levels of spiritual development.
Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2011 13:14:23 +0000
Subject: [sl4] Universal versus 'local' Friendliness
From: amon@doctrinezero.com
To: sl4@sl4.org
Hi All -
I'm not sure if this list even exists anymore, but just in case it does... I've been thinking about AGI and Friendliness. Yes, I know, a minefield to say the least. Specifically, I've been taking this matter and comparing it to early Extropian notions about libertarianism and technological progress, and the comparison suggests what might be a new question. (Something that I daresay Ben Goertzel has considered, but I don't have him to hand, as it were).
So, I remember a piece of Max's (IIRC), in which he made the case that too many governmental controls on technological development would only ensure that less-controlled countries would develop key technologies first. Within reason, that sounds a plausible claim to me. Universally Friendly AGI, of the sort that SIAI contemplates, seems to be a textbook case of constrained technological development. i.e. it seems reasonable to expect that non-Friendly AGI would be easier to develop than Friendly AGI (even if FAI is possible, and there seem to be good reasons to believe that universally Friendly superhuman AGI would be impossible for humans to develop).
Because Friendliness is being worked on for very good (safety) reasons, it seems to me that we should be thinking about the possibility of "locally Friendly" AGI, just in case Friendliness is in principle possible, but the full package SIAI hopes for would just come along too late to be useful.
By "locally Friendly", I mean an AGI that respects certain boundaries, is Friendly to *certain* people and principles, but not ALL of them. E.g. a "patriotic American" AGI. That may sound bad, but if you've got a choice between that and a completely unconstrained AGI, at least the former would protect the people it was developed by/for.
Anyway, before I go too far down this road, does anyone have any thoughts on this idea? Maybe you know of a relevant article out there, someone who has already considered the matter at length?
Cheers,
Amon
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