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Universal Paperclips

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Re: Universal Paperclips

#61

Post by throwaway290 »

d1str0 wrote: post #38
dylan604 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like how the sci-fi authors have spent time thinking about what an advanced AI could do, yet those building the AI have not taken a moment's pause to consider what they are doing

Do you honestly believe that the only people who have thought about the ramifications of AI are Sci Fi authors? I can guarantee people who spend years researching and building advanced language models have thought about the ramifications of their work. This isn’t Jurassic Park.

> I can guarantee people who spend years researching and building advanced language models have thought about the ramifications of their work.

Super easy to not think about something if your job depends on it. And even if you do, things don't go as you think (see bombings of civilian Hiroshima and Nagasaki despite objections of nuclear physicists).

Re: Universal Paperclips

#62

Post by brazzy »

Cerium wrote: post #6
gms7777 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I played it first a few years ago and was totally engrossed. A few months ago, I remembered it and thought "well maybe I'll find it again and play for a few minutes"... and then I did nothing else for the rest of the day.

It has excellent replay value.

It has basically no replay value, compared to games like Kittens or Evolve. Every playthrough is basically the same. There are no substantially different strategies, and only at the very end is there a single decision that determines which of two endings (and fairly simple boosts) you get. After one playthrough you have seen 99.9% of the content, after two you have seen 100%

The writing and the story is pretty damn good though.

Re: Universal Paperclips

#63

Post by Nzen »

adamrezich wrote: post #11

what're some other interesting "incremental games" out there these days? for me at least, just seeing numbers go up and get huge (Swarm Simulator) doesn't really do it for me. part of what makes Universal Paperclips so good is that, like Candy Box, a huge part of the joy is uncovering entirely new gameplay systems as you progress. A Dark Room was neat in that it brought the idea of a coherent narrative that you (some…

Google's quantum computer idle game [0] was pretty cute, visually. That shouldn't be surprising, though, given that they commissioned doublespeak games (originator of A Dark Room) to make it.

[0] https://quantumai.google/education/thequbitgame

Re: Universal Paperclips

#64

Post by dang »

bironran wrote: post #4

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446121 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24389655 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36972227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32125372 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35378453 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20955089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15504187 https:…

Thanks! Macroexpanded:

Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33446121 - Nov 2022 (170 comments)

Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30837131 - March 2022 (3 comments)

Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29496595 - Dec 2021 (82 comments)

Universal Paperclips – play the role of an AI programmed to produce paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27121348 - May 2021 (2 comments)

Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26524117 - March 2021 (1 comment)

A filmmaker thinks he can turn Universal Paperclips into a movie (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405682 - Sept 2020 (2 comments)

Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24389655 - Sept 2020 (84 comments)

Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22394560 - Feb 2020 (1 comment)

The Unexpected Philosophical Depths of the Clicker Game Universal Paperclips - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19513089 - March 2019 (52 comments)

Universal Paperclips – A Paperclip Production Simulator - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15439569 - Oct 2017 (3 comments)

(Btw the convention is to omit links to past threads that have no comments, or only trivial comments. Otherwise people click on the links, find nothing of interest, and come back complain. Not a criticism! just FYI)

Re: Universal Paperclips

#65

Post by goatlover »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #53
d1str0 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you honestly believe that the only people who have thought about the ramifications of AI are Sci Fi authors? I can guarantee people who spend years researching and building advanced language models have thought about the ramifications of their work. This isn’t Jurassic Park.

If you accept the implied premise that there are irresponsible deployments of AI out there, the alternative explanation is that they did consider the ramifications and simply don't care. That's even worse. Calling them ignorant is actually giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Or the researchers don't think existential threats are realistic, and paper maximizing thought experiments are silly. Maybe they're wrong, but maybe not. It's easy to imagine AI takeover scenarios by giving them unlimited powers, it's hard to show the actual path to such abilities.

It's also hard to understand why an AI smart enough to paperclip the world wouldn't also be smart enough to realize the futility in doing so. So while alignment remains an issue, the existential alignment threats are too ill-specified. AGIs would understand we don't want to paperclip the world.

Fun game though.

Re: Universal Paperclips

#66

Post by overnight5349 »

brazzy wrote: post #62
Cerium wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has excellent replay value.

It has basically no replay value, compared to games like Kittens or Evolve. Every playthrough is basically the same. There are no substantially different strategies, and only at the very end is there a single decision that determines which of two endings (and fairly simple boosts) you get. After one playthrough you have seen 99.9% of the content, after two you have seen 100% The writing and the story is pretty damn g…

The new version has a multiverse map you have to traverse through to collect some really sick upgrades

It's an absolute grind, but once you pick up some 500% productivity multipliers it gets much easier

Re: Universal Paperclips

#67

Post by skeaker »

adamrezich wrote: post #41
Groxx wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crank is pretty similar to both A Dark Room and paperclips in terms of feel, also not mobile friendly at all sadly: https://faedine.com/games/crank/b39/

it's also unfinished if I recall correctly? I enjoyed the power-balancing system, thought that was pretty neat

Not sure if it's unfinished but the power balancing was always a mess, solar panels trounce everything else by a country mile. There's a whole "set up plants on planets and receive power from them" system that I missed until I had already completed the game because it is literally 1/100th the efficiency of just making another solar panel.

Fun game though! Definitely worth a play if you're interested in clicker games with an unfolding narrative.

Re: Universal Paperclips

#68

Post by Groxx »

skeaker wrote: post #67
adamrezich wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's also unfinished if I recall correctly? I enjoyed the power-balancing system, thought that was pretty neat

Not sure if it's unfinished but the power balancing was always a mess, solar panels trounce everything else by a country mile. There's a whole "set up plants on planets and receive power from them" system that I missed until I had already completed the game because it is literally 1/100th the efficiency of just making another solar panel. Fun game though! Definitely worth a play if you're interested in clicker games…

I'd call it finished in practice. They might have had dreams of making alternate or more satisfying endings beyond the current, but there is an effective end.

Re planets: yeah just don't even bother. By the time they arrive, your production will have outstripped anything that gets delivered. I had a bit of fun setting up huge quantities of cheap things on nearly every planet and then racing the stream of pointless supplies around the map... but I was already making far more supplies per second than was delivered and able to be used due to storage and production caps (ignoring that I had no useful reason for increasing further, after some point you just trounce everything trivially).

Re: Universal Paperclips

#69

Post by fkarg »

adamrezich wrote: post #11

what're some other interesting "incremental games" out there these days? for me at least, just seeing numbers go up and get huge (Swarm Simulator) doesn't really do it for me. part of what makes Universal Paperclips so good is that, like Candy Box, a huge part of the joy is uncovering entirely new gameplay systems as you progress. A Dark Room was neat in that it brought the idea of a coherent narrative that you (some…

I recently started playing CIFI (https://octocubegames.com/cifi). Number go up is indeed very satisfying.

It progressively introduces new game mechanics, which you automate away when they start being annoying.

Also: At this point I probably spent about the same time building excel sheets for figuring out prioritization of upgrades as actually playing the game.

Re: Universal Paperclips

#70

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

d1str0 wrote: post #38
dylan604 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like how the sci-fi authors have spent time thinking about what an advanced AI could do, yet those building the AI have not taken a moment's pause to consider what they are doing

Do you honestly believe that the only people who have thought about the ramifications of AI are Sci Fi authors? I can guarantee people who spend years researching and building advanced language models have thought about the ramifications of their work. This isn’t Jurassic Park.

Some of us considered it and even decided to go into different fields as a result.

Some others entered the field, made progress, and apparently regretted it.

Others are willing to put their concerns aside for money. Salaries get very high in that field.

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