Comments on: Wintermute vs. Rachel Rosen http://futurismic.com/2009/08/04/wintermute-vs-rachel-rosen/ Presenting the fact and fiction of tomorrow since 2001 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:03:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Anthony http://futurismic.com/2009/08/04/wintermute-vs-rachel-rosen/comment-page-1/#comment-40781 Anthony Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:18:38 +0000 http://futurismic.com/?p=8476#comment-40781 Not necessarily. Heinlein, as well as others, have posited that AI designed to serve humanity will necessarily be very human-like, in order to better work with us, since an intelligence we can't communicate with wouldn't be very useful, would it? Not necessarily. Heinlein, as well as others, have posited that AI designed to serve humanity will necessarily be very human-like, in order to better work with us, since an intelligence we can’t communicate with wouldn’t be very useful, would it?

]]> By: Dave http://futurismic.com/2009/08/04/wintermute-vs-rachel-rosen/comment-page-1/#comment-40681 Dave Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:05:40 +0000 http://futurismic.com/?p=8476#comment-40681 That Wintermute-Neuromancer has no real interest in ruling, and abandons his world like an absent god, leaving godlings to meddle in his place -- a wonderful piece of pop theology, but not much of a lesson for the future, I think. That Wintermute-Neuromancer has no real interest in ruling, and abandons his world like an absent god, leaving godlings to meddle in his place — a wonderful piece of pop theology, but not much of a lesson for the future, I think.

]]> By: Dave http://futurismic.com/2009/08/04/wintermute-vs-rachel-rosen/comment-page-1/#comment-40680 Dave Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:03:35 +0000 http://futurismic.com/?p=8476#comment-40680 Humans are not necessarily empathetic. But they are relatively bounded in their capabilities. Gibson's early AIs were much more godlike than Dick's -- they could run worlds, if unchecked. Or they were more monotheistically godlike; perhaps Dick's replicants are like the Greek gods, wreaking petty violence with relative impunity but not controlling the cosmos. The topic of the danger posed by amoral, powerful AI is of course Eliezer Yudkowsky's main cause celebre. The institution of "empathetic" (more importantly, moral) AI is the "Friendly AI" (FAI) project. He emphasizes that this a very difficult problem -- to make AI that not only is empathetic but remains empathetic, prevents non-empathetic AI, and keeps its behavior in the incredibly narrow band acceptable to human values is a daunting (if seemingly necessary) task. Humans are not necessarily empathetic. But they are relatively bounded in their capabilities. Gibson’s early AIs were much more godlike than Dick’s — they could run worlds, if unchecked. Or they were more monotheistically godlike; perhaps Dick’s replicants are like the Greek gods, wreaking petty violence with relative impunity but not controlling the cosmos.

The topic of the danger posed by amoral, powerful AI is of course Eliezer Yudkowsky’s main cause celebre. The institution of “empathetic” (more importantly, moral) AI is the “Friendly AI” (FAI) project. He emphasizes that this a very difficult problem — to make AI that not only is empathetic but remains empathetic, prevents non-empathetic AI, and keeps its behavior in the incredibly narrow band acceptable to human values is a daunting (if seemingly necessary) task.

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