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An existential problem in the search for alien life

theatlantic.com

31–40 of 81 posts

Re: An existential problem in the search for alien life

#31

It seems likely that, like us, intelligent life invents AGI prior to leaving their primary planet. Organic life is then merged/exterminated/controlled in favor of AGI. AGI would not have the biological instinct to grow/spread/reproduce, and thus the cosmos should be populated with a handful of individual billion year old super advanced AGIs, perhaps only one or two per galaxy, sitting quietly in orbit around some sta…

I honestly don’t mean to condescend, but I find it so interesting that smart people can convince themselves that such an outlandish scenario is somehow likely or even perhaps inevitable.

We haven’t invented “AGI” yet (if AGI means a computer system that merges/exterminates/controls humanity). We have no idea even theoretically what such a system might look like, let alone how to create it.

I’d say we’re a lot closer to colonising the solar system and building cities on Jupiter’s moons than we are to building the machines from the Matrix. At least we kind of theoretically know how to do the former.

Meanwhile, we’re really good at building computer and industrial systems that (when combined with economic, social and political incentives) exert strong control over us, exterminate many of us, and may well exterminate a lot more in the near future.

But that doesn’t look like a Hollywood movie, so it’s less fun to think about.

Sorry, this wasn’t meant to be a dig at you personally. Some of the AI doom stuff just sets me off.

Re: An existential problem in the search for alien life

#32
post #21

It's weird that stuff like this can make it to the front page, but nobody is talking about the Schumer amendment[0], or maybe even more interesting, the push by a few Republicans mostly funded by defense contractors to gut the amendment of any teeth it had. Our own government might have more answers then they say publically, and now that we're demanding the evidence we're being denied. If there's nothing there... why…

I mean, it's pointless legislation; it has the usual "unless disclosure would 'substantially impair the national security of the United States'" loopholes.

Are there any Congressional representatives not "funded by defense contractors"?

Re: An existential problem in the search for alien life

#33

Almost all space news stories look for the “thrilling possibility of life” angle. Despite the environment being -320 or +320 Celsius. I don’t know what to make if it. It’s weird.

> Despite the environment being -320 or +320 Celsius.

We're largely not looking for life in the interstellar vacuum.

Re: An existential problem in the search for alien life

#34
post #26

It seems likely that, like us, intelligent life invents AGI prior to leaving their primary planet. Organic life is then merged/exterminated/controlled in favor of AGI. AGI would not have the biological instinct to grow/spread/reproduce, and thus the cosmos should be populated with a handful of individual billion year old super advanced AGIs, perhaps only one or two per galaxy, sitting quietly in orbit around some sta…

I think AGI would not extinguish the host species if it didn't have the drive to spread. "Do not go extinct" and "grow/spread/reproduce" are two sides of the same natural selection coin.

Full-immersion virtual porn might do the trick, though.

Or maybe every civilization eventually invents TikTok.

Re: An existential problem in the search for alien life

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, the real mystery is why so many people are confused about “why, despite universe seeming so vast, there are no signs of other alien civilizations” in 2023. We have all the elements for answers if we focus on what we know, and forget the hand wavy sci-fi speculation. 1) Complex life is rare. 2) Reaching a space faring stage is even rarer. (we’re the most minimal definition of “space faring” you could come up…

Yeah. There's such a huge difference in interplanetary life vs interstellar or even intergalactic life. Interplanetary: easy. Interstellar: pushing the boundaries of what's possible imho. Intergalactic: no way. Our closest planet (Mars) is 3 light minutes away. Our closest star (Proxima Centauri) is 5 light years away. Our closest galactic neighbour (LMC) is 150000 lightyears away.

Is there even any reason to think interplanetary is easy? We have a lot of stories saying so, and we intend to do it but we don't even have a loose plan of what that would look like.

Creating a closed self-sustaining ecosystem capable of supporting large animal life & cut off from the earth's resources is not something we've been able to do even at a proof-of-concept level.

We're very confident in ourselves but idk. It's not preposterous that life is a planetary expression and that it's simply not possible to expand an instance of it beyond the planet that birthed it. We assume we aren't subject to this constraint but we haven't demonstrated it at all.

Re: An existential problem in the search for alien life

#36
post #31

It seems likely that, like us, intelligent life invents AGI prior to leaving their primary planet. Organic life is then merged/exterminated/controlled in favor of AGI. AGI would not have the biological instinct to grow/spread/reproduce, and thus the cosmos should be populated with a handful of individual billion year old super advanced AGIs, perhaps only one or two per galaxy, sitting quietly in orbit around some sta…

I honestly don’t mean to condescend, but I find it so interesting that smart people can convince themselves that such an outlandish scenario is somehow likely or even perhaps inevitable. We haven’t invented “AGI” yet (if AGI means a computer system that merges/exterminates/controls humanity). We have no idea even theoretically what such a system might look like, let alone how to create it. I’d say we’re a lot closer…

We are simply watching the birth of a new religion. Religious people aren't religious because they're dumb, intelligence is mostly not a factor. Same thing here I think.

Re: An existential problem in the search for alien life

#37
post #31

It seems likely that, like us, intelligent life invents AGI prior to leaving their primary planet. Organic life is then merged/exterminated/controlled in favor of AGI. AGI would not have the biological instinct to grow/spread/reproduce, and thus the cosmos should be populated with a handful of individual billion year old super advanced AGIs, perhaps only one or two per galaxy, sitting quietly in orbit around some sta…

I honestly don’t mean to condescend, but I find it so interesting that smart people can convince themselves that such an outlandish scenario is somehow likely or even perhaps inevitable. We haven’t invented “AGI” yet (if AGI means a computer system that merges/exterminates/controls humanity). We have no idea even theoretically what such a system might look like, let alone how to create it. I’d say we’re a lot closer…

Yeah. A lot of it to me feels like the JRPG version of reality.

Re: An existential problem in the search for alien life

#38
post #8

Once upon a time in the universe, there was an alien civilization, and they were very interested in figuring out the question, why, despite universe seeming so vast, there are no signs of other alien civilizations. What could it be? Near-zero term in the Drake equation? The dark forest? A great filter? To understand different possibilities, they decided to determine the cause using a computer simulation. However, due…

[deleted]

Re: An existential problem in the search for alien life

#40
post #29

It seems likely that, like us, intelligent life invents AGI prior to leaving their primary planet. Organic life is then merged/exterminated/controlled in favor of AGI. AGI would not have the biological instinct to grow/spread/reproduce, and thus the cosmos should be populated with a handful of individual billion year old super advanced AGIs, perhaps only one or two per galaxy, sitting quietly in orbit around some sta…

There are a number of assumptions here that I think I need to ask about. >Organic life is then merged/exterminated/controlled in favor of AGI. Why? What would be the motivation for this? If we are the case study, AGI isn't able to "feed" itself energy without biological life to turn switches and dials. So why would this be a logical first step? >AGI would not have the biological instinct to grow/spread/reproduce This…

Why wouldn't AGI be able to feed itself? Seems fairly reasonable that an advanced enough AI could design and build machines and robots that could produce physical objects
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