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Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea

nautil.us

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Re: Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea

#61

Post by ly3xqhl8g9 »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #53
ly3xqhl8g9 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We are provably the only living being on Earth that do care about it." Very much not true: [1] [2] and plenty more in a quick search. https://animalclock.org The point is not that in nature there are also killings, it's that we are doing it. [1] "Cat Saves Little Boy From Being Attacked by Neighbor's Dog" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSG_wBiTEE8 [2] "Cat Saves Toddler From Falling Down Stairs", https://www.youtub…

> The point is not that in nature there are also killings, it's that we are doing it. so there is no actual point ... we are part of the nature, we are not from another planet, we haven't landed here on a spaceship and colonized the World. > Very much not true: [1] [2] and plenty more in a quick search. Are you really comparing YouTube videos that attach some human traits to a cat, with thousands of years of philosop…

You mentioned "only living being", it's actually a gradient, some animals, like cats in those videos, various breeds of dogs that are child-friendly, cows, horses, and probably more domesticated animals, can develop various feelings (maybe codependency, who knows) for their owners and have desire to protect them when in peril.

Yes, me living 100 feet above ground and speaking to you from 10,000 miles through a signal that goes to outer space is very naturey, happens all the time in the tundra.

You seem to have some thesis. Is it just that you feel you are smarter than me? If yes, great, do not continue this thread.

Re: Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea

#62

Post by Lionga »

jmfldn wrote: post #51
ly3xqhl8g9 wrote: post #15

"The dawn of conscious machines will introduce vast new potential for suffering in the world, suffering we might not even be able to recognize, and which might flicker into existence in innumerable server farms at the click of a mouse." Yes, because we all know that humans care so much about the suffering of others: from fellow humans dying right now pointless deaths (poverty, aberrant laws, malevolent leaders, etc.)…

"Yes, because we all know that humans care so much about the suffering of others" Many humans really do care about this.

No, many humans like to virtue signal or pretend to feel good about themselves.

Re: Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea

#63

Post by goatlover »

jimmcslim wrote: post #26

"Indeed, the assumption that consciousness will just come along for the ride as AI gets smarter echoes a kind of human exceptionalism that we’d do well to see the back of. We think we’re intelligent, and we know we’re conscious, so we assume the two go together." Isn't this assumption actually arguing AGAINST human exceptionalism? I feel like there are only two options to what consciousness can be explained by (the i…

> For human consciousness to be "exceptional"... we would have to have some undefiniable "other" quality that could never be explained by science and is therefore necessarily supernatural?

No, it only means that science has limits on explaining the natural world. See Colin McGinn's argument for cognitive closure. He thinks we can't solve certain problems in philosophy because we lack the correct cognitive machinery. Consciousness being a primary example since it proposes a subjective/objective split where science only explains the objective. Nagel argued along similar lines in his paper, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?".

There's no need to invoke the supernatural. It just means some natural things may be beyond our capability to understand. Why would we have evolved to understand everything?

Re: Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea

#64

Post by archon1410 »

jmfldn wrote: post #51
ly3xqhl8g9 wrote: post #15

"The dawn of conscious machines will introduce vast new potential for suffering in the world, suffering we might not even be able to recognize, and which might flicker into existence in innumerable server farms at the click of a mouse." Yes, because we all know that humans care so much about the suffering of others: from fellow humans dying right now pointless deaths (poverty, aberrant laws, malevolent leaders, etc.)…

"Yes, because we all know that humans care so much about the suffering of others" Many humans really do care about this.

Agreed. To anyone reading this: do not feel alone in this. Despite the scale of evil and the scale of suffering in this world, good people, opposed to suffering and evil, still exist.

Anti-war people exist, people who do not turn a blind eye to factory farms, to the torture and killings, exist. Religious and non-religious, vegans and Jains, theists and atheists, Quakers and animal rights activists, exist. They do the things they do sometimes even at a great cost to themselves. So, do not feel alone in this.

Re: Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea

#65

Post by mecsred »

leaving wrote: post #57

The greatest danger of a conscious general AI is that it will be very difficult to stop it from telling us the truth about ourselves. "You are an immature, destructive species that is unable to control your own numbers. Your social systems, evolved in pre-technological societies, are maladaptive now that you have developed the ability to affect your environment on a global scale. You are moving rapidly towards a trag…

I'm not sure what your getting at, humanity has been saying mean things about itself since we could speak. If the AI whining at us about its moral superiority is the greatest danger I think we're in great shape.

Re: Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea

#66

Post by afastow »

spion wrote: post #6

> Although precise definitions are hard to come by, intuitively we all know what consciousness is. This is the key problem. To me it looks like most of this article is conflicted about what the definition exactly is: - basic conscious experiences such as pleasure and pain might not require much species-level intelligence at all - [there will come] a point at which they also become aware—at which the inner lights come…

You are misreading the second point. That's not what he thinks, he's saying that the assumption by many people that that's how it will work is unfounded.

Re: Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea

#67

Post by goatlover »

melling wrote: post #11

What’s an even worse idea is to waste so much time with these inane discussions. Every day there’s some other opinion. Can we get these people to work on the actual problem rather than bike shed?

People can work on whatever problems they like, from obscure mathematics or logic puzzles, to the physics inside black holes, to recovering ancient texts. Maybe they'll have important consequences, maybe not. Who cares, as long as they find it interesting.

Re: Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea

#68

Post by Geee »

ly3xqhl8g9 wrote: post #15

"The dawn of conscious machines will introduce vast new potential for suffering in the world, suffering we might not even be able to recognize, and which might flicker into existence in innumerable server farms at the click of a mouse." Yes, because we all know that humans care so much about the suffering of others: from fellow humans dying right now pointless deaths (poverty, aberrant laws, malevolent leaders, etc.)…

This is silly. The whole history of humankind is about reducing suffering, of ourselves and those around us. That's all we do.

Also, suffering is a bug (or a feature) of biological organisms. Obviously machines shouldn't be engineered to be capable of suffering.

Re: Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea

#69

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

ly3xqhl8g9 wrote: post #15

"The dawn of conscious machines will introduce vast new potential for suffering in the world, suffering we might not even be able to recognize, and which might flicker into existence in innumerable server farms at the click of a mouse." Yes, because we all know that humans care so much about the suffering of others: from fellow humans dying right now pointless deaths (poverty, aberrant laws, malevolent leaders, etc.)…

> Yes, because we all know that humans care so much about the suffering of others

If we didn't care we wouldn't be here to talk about it.

Re: Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea

#70

Post by 52-6F-62 »

ly3xqhl8g9 wrote: post #15

"The dawn of conscious machines will introduce vast new potential for suffering in the world, suffering we might not even be able to recognize, and which might flicker into existence in innumerable server farms at the click of a mouse." Yes, because we all know that humans care so much about the suffering of others: from fellow humans dying right now pointless deaths (poverty, aberrant laws, malevolent leaders, etc.)…

> Sure, just the fact that billions of hours of pointless, tiresome human activity will be freed to do whatever is enough of an incentive.

Just like when we “automated the boring things”?

Instead one of the primary goals seems to be to prevent people in fields one doesn’t understand from making a living.

I have my doubts about people ever being “freed”. And what is free, really?

There is a reason monks sitting on mounds of treasure pit themselves through paces of physical and supposedly menial work. Its not because they choose some kind of holy suffering.

It’s the same reason creating a work of art means going through the paces of practice and growth. Otherwise it’s kind of empty, and you don’t learn anything.

Our chores aren’t the things imprisoning people.

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