tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post8299736623452462681..comments2024-03-27T01:28:28.346-07:00Comments on False Machine: "a one-eyed sparrow with a fretful temperament" - Nick Bostroms 'Superintelligence'pjamesstuarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-89624641166341124542016-08-29T15:09:51.199-07:002016-08-29T15:09:51.199-07:00My first impression was the same.
I find his ar...My first impression was the same. <br /><br />I find his arguments wonderfully entertaining, but seriously lacking in certain aspects,... like resource allocation. <br /><br /> Sure, theoretically, a superintelligent self improving computer may increase its power on a J curve, but there are other factors beyond programming in play. He doesn't think enough about the constraints of physical limitations on these theoretical beings.Casmariushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14199504639246237699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-41608764863013292552016-08-29T04:10:53.675-07:002016-08-29T04:10:53.675-07:00I have heard of it yeah.I have heard of it yeah.pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-18073892781698233832016-08-29T03:20:46.996-07:002016-08-29T03:20:46.996-07:00Have you heard of "Roko's Basilisk"?...Have you heard of "Roko's Basilisk"?<br /><br />The idea goes that, at some point in the future, a superintelligent altruistic AI comes into being and saves everyone and ends all suffering. The sooner it exists, the fewer people suffer and die. So you should be helping to bring it into existence, because not doing so means more people will suffer and die. We can't have that.<br /><br />So, the idea goes, the AI is going to want to hurry the process along as much as possible. In order to make you hurry up, it's going to punish people who knew they ought to help invent it but didn't. Probably by creating simulations of anyone who knew they could be helping but didn't, and then torturing those simulations forever.<br /><br />As long as you don't know about the Basilisk, it can't blame you. But now that you do know, it'll figure that out and torture you forever if you don't hurry up and invent it.Nick Sunshinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14544776738808441182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-51227271315030371292016-08-29T01:03:05.201-07:002016-08-29T01:03:05.201-07:00I didn't answer this at first but now I feel l...I didn't answer this at first but now I feel like I have to ask: <br /><br />Le Morte D’Arthur by Thomas Malory isn't a classic book by a great writer?<br /><br />The Seven Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin isn't a classic book by a great writer?<br /><br />Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West?<br /><br />Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe?<br /><br />I must stress, I'm asking not so much becasue I value your judgement, but becasue I want to know what the fuck is going on in your head.pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-20145334053684627382016-08-28T02:55:47.827-07:002016-08-28T02:55:47.827-07:00Thanks for the suggestion but, as I stated on G+, ...Thanks for the suggestion but, as I stated on G+, I have about a million things to read and I am not currently taking requests. I do appreciate the thought though.pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-41954247964545079652016-08-28T02:55:01.623-07:002016-08-28T02:55:01.623-07:00Wow, it really adds up over the time doesn't i...Wow, it really adds up over the time doesn't it?pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-51082810866051711262016-08-28T01:23:05.564-07:002016-08-28T01:23:05.564-07:00Oh yeah, I have another book recommendation for yo...Oh yeah, I have another book recommendation for you. New Girl by S. L. Grey. It's a short, weird horror story.Akiyamahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01002160797943960637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-54409501871367854212016-08-28T00:38:43.475-07:002016-08-28T00:38:43.475-07:00I do like your book reviews. You read a LOT and ha...I do like your book reviews. You read a LOT and have unpredictable tastes.<br /><br />I made a list of all the books mentioned on this blog that I might like to read. I left out the ones that seemed like they would be too dense for my meagre intellect (I can cope with Beatrix Potter). I thought others might like to see it, so here it is:<br /><br />Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom<br />Prey by Michael Crichton <br />The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine Pizan<br />The Knight in History by Frances Gies<br />Dictionary of Word Origins by Linda Flavell & Roger Flavell<br />Boys & Girls: Superheroes in the Doll Corner by Vivian Gussin Paley<br />Le Morte D’Arthur by Thomas Malory<br />Fire on the Rim by Stephen J Pyne<br />The Art of Not Being Governed by James C. Scott<br />Indian Sculpture by Philip Rawson<br />Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West<br />Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe<br />The Seven Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin<br />The Education of a British Protected Child by Chinua Achebe<br />Beneath Flanders Fields by Barton, Doyle & Vandewalle<br />Why Hell Stinks of Sulphur by Salomon Kroonenberg<br />Trilobite! by Richard Fortey<br />Bird Sense by Tim Birkhead<br />What the Robin Knows by Jon Young<br />The Underground City by Jules Verne<br />The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf<br />The Descent by Jeff Long<br />Memory in Oral Traditions by David Rubin<br />The War for America, 1775-1783 by Piers Mackesy<br />The Earth: An Intimate History by Richard Fortey<br />The Places In Between by Rory Stewart <br />Blind Descent by James M Tabor<br />The Last Adventure ed. by Alan Thomas<br />Underground Worlds by Donald Dale Jackson<br />Rabid by Bill Wasik & Monica Murphy<br />Bound for Canaan by Fergus Bordewich<br />The Last Navigator by Stephen D. Thomas<br />Tales From the Underground by David W. Wolfe<br />Sand by Michael Welland<br />Ten Years Under the Earth by Norbert Casteret<br />La Place de la Concorde Suisse by John McPhee<br />The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit by Beatrix Potter<br />Atrocitology by Matthew White<br /><br />The Descent is going to the top of my "to read" list.<br /><br />I want to know what the book Arnold sent you is!<br /><br />Looking forward to Veins of the Earth.<br /><br />Akiyamahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01002160797943960637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-66930512095146253872016-08-27T21:57:53.246-07:002016-08-27T21:57:53.246-07:00I read Superintelligence earlier this year and it ...I read Superintelligence earlier this year and it seemed sensible to me. But I haven't read any serious argument against the ideas put forward in the book. If there is any such argument, I would like to read it.<br /><br />Given the number of experts in the past who confidently asserted that things such as heavier than air flying machines and space flight were impossible (in the case of flying machines, even after they had actually been demonstrated), I would need something more detailed than expressions of incredulity to make me re-evaluate my belief that Nick Bostrom knows what he's talking about. <br /><br />I don't have much hope that we will avoid extinction by AI. It wasn't until the SECOND plane hit the World Trade Centre that people realised a plane flying into a building that had previously been attacked by terrorists wasn't an accident.<br /><br />Can I recommend three things you might find interesting? <br /><br />Firstly, The Black Swan by Nicholas Nassim Taleb.<br /><br />Secondly, this piece of My Little Pony fanfiction. I don't think you have to know anything about My Little Pony to enjoy the story. I don't know if the author has read Nick Bostrom but she seems to be a similar type.<br /><br />http://www.fimfiction.net/story/69770/friendship-is-optimal-caelum-est-conterrens<br /><br />Thirdly, you reviewed Ian Mortimer's book on Elizabethan society a while back. I read the book after reading your review, and I'm now halfway through his latest book - The Human Race, which is about how Western society has changed over the last 1000 years. It's very good.Akiyamahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01002160797943960637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-82555516636706441132016-08-26T12:25:58.793-07:002016-08-26T12:25:58.793-07:00Back in the 90's when he was writing The Invis...Back in the 90's when he was writing The Invisibles Grant Morrison did at least one story where a character turns out to be a Tulpa, an embodied dream of a different person. (Note: this is a poor description of what Tulpas actually are either in morrisons fiction or in the original Tibten lore). I seem to recall the general idea cropped up a bunch of times in various works of his.pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-71842809993086523372016-08-26T07:05:28.393-07:002016-08-26T07:05:28.393-07:00As a computer scientist, I found this bulls**t!
He...As a computer scientist, I found this bulls**t!<br />He sounds like a cavemen worried about the creation atomic bombs when we can barely make fire.G. B. Verashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07321019711309446662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-40732040303352417862016-08-26T06:59:11.413-07:002016-08-26T06:59:11.413-07:00Please explain what you mean by "Morrisonian ...Please explain what you mean by "Morrisonian Tulpa stories."Jay Duggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10181402451119462976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-85336216819395945662016-08-25T19:01:05.028-07:002016-08-25T19:01:05.028-07:00" jamming us full of digital heroin and mass ..." jamming us full of digital heroin and mass copying us onto every piece of matter in the cosmos" not sure why else we would be building AI if that's not the end goal?scrap princesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01278801560026111482noreply@blogger.com