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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3148 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 29, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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It only seems to if you accept some pretty specific premises -- all of which seem fantasitical to the population at large.

It's like saying 'the prospect of burning in Hell seems to eat other consequential concerns' -- it sure does! But only if you believe in Hell.

The population at large thought fantastical the telegraph, cars, oil, artillery, fighter jets, electricity, nuclear bombs, computers, and neural nets, a century before they arrived. They still came, and clever people predicted them.

Along with the flying cars, interplanetary (manned) spaceships, and other things that clever people predicted -- I honestly think that the popularity of science fiction and AI Doom scenarios in the rationalist community are not a coincidence. But 'would make a great science fiction story' is not a good predictor for 'is likely to happen IRL'.

Flying cars exist! There are multiple brands! They're just not very practical relative to cars/trains/planes. Link.

Interplanetary manned spaceships are clearly technically possible.

And yet...

'AGI capable of ruling/destroying/whatevering the world' is not even at the 'clearly technically possible' point -- why would one worry more about it than flying cars?

Because it seems quite likely that it'll happen in the future?

For the same reason that small mammals like ferrets existing implies the existence of humans a few hundred million years later, even though ferrets didn't rule much.

What do you expect the world to look like in ten thousand years? Where were we three hundred years ago? Will change slow? Will it really just be awesome forever, just because? How does that work?

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