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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   38440 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 27, 2023

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This. Is there any reason to believe that humans will be able to hold on to their position on the top of the food chain forever, even as we work to replicate our one great advantage of intelligence in nonhuman entities? What argument exactly is there for continued human dominance and existence?

The only argument is simply that that's how we programmed an overseer AGI, namely to impose technological and biological stasis so that baseline humans stay relevant. In other words, an AI that doesn't take action except as necessary to keep the status quo running indefinitely.

Otherwise we'd just split off into various subspecies and transhuman clades, and one would likely come to dominate the others. Baseline humans suck compared to what can be achieved.

I'm a human and I'd prefer me (and any prospective descendants of mine) continue to exist is a pretty good argument.

AI Rick: hmmm, I don't know. Best I can offer you is a few seconds of contemplation in Human Remembrance day.

Sure. Same here. But I'm not asking about what we want, but about what we'll get.

Ultimately everyone eats the same food (energy).

Because it doesn't take edibility for an intelligence to determine that whatever its goals may be, it'll have an easier time with them after marginalizing or exterminating potentially hostile actors. See Dark Forest, only with AIs instead of aliens.

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