04-20-2023, 10:03 PM
(04-20-2023, 06:39 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: These are all valid questions that I myself have thought of. Really, I don't think AGI would be that much different than an alien race. If AGI is able to achieve sentience, then we have created another sentient and conscious race, one that is more powerful than we could ever dream of becoming. So, do we work with it to augment the human race? The things we could do are purely science fiction now. Would AGI be able to help us discover how to colonize the moon? Mars? Interstellar travel? Creation of a Dyson Sphere? Possibly, yes. Amazing scientific breakthroughs will only be an inevitability.
However, there are genuine fears around the discovery. Yes, the automation of everything could very well spell trouble for humans. Many people genuinely enjoy working and don't have interest in just living life, traveling and all of the other extracurriculars. I don't think UBI will be the only thing implemented. There will have to be some kind of roles that humans can occupy for those who want to work and supplement their income.
I've also had some really far off thinking that AGI could be the next evolutional step in the human race. Would it be possible to upload a consciousness into an AGI "agent", effectively giving a person immortality? Or would humans end up dying off, an AGI is all that remains? These are all incredibly wild ideas and I am aware of that, but it is possible if this technology ends up being what we think it could be. Now, none of this would happen in our lifetimes, I don't think. However, if we achieve it and humans manage to keep themselves alive for another 250-500 years then yeah, it very well could be.
There is a lot to be excited about but also a lot to be fearful of.
Immortality sounds equally horrific to me. You'd end up with centuries-old mega-powerful oligarchs ruling everything. The young would have no chance if there was no need to replace the old. Jobs, already scarce due to AI would be occupied by an elderly population that never had to retire. Debts would become infinite and crippling. Suicide would become the most common cause of death on the planet, because it would be the only way to die. The immortal ruling class would forge themselves into godlike figures that would possess the resources and knowledge to control the population. They would manipulate and shape thought to an extent that even the current skeptical public could not imagine. If you think there's a wealth gap now, wait until the elite can live forever. They'd become more powerful than militaries and governments.
Even worse than an eternal ruling class, consider this: how long before our immortal elite decide to perpetuate other human life as a permanent slave class? Immortal servants and producers, and just plain people to rule. People born as batteries to run the machine that can never be allowed to die and live centuries in deplorable servitude. You would not even be able to decide to take your own life.
These things need to be stopped before they create actual hell on earth.
Just think of the worst major public figure you can think of. Maybe you hate Trump. Or Soros. Or the Clintons. or Jeff Bezos. Whatever boogeyman you like. Now imagine that they can live forever and accumulate power infinitely. Trump could not only steal an election, he could be president forever. Or until Bezos builds an army large enough to annihilate him and half the rest of the country.
This is the kind of power that you apply the old legislative adage to. Before you give the government power to do something it couldn't do before, first imagine the politician you hate the most wielding that power. Then make a decision. There are too many evil, greedy and sociopathic individuals in a positions of power to put something like this into the world.
Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park was a fictional prophet when he said that "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could they didn't stop to think if they should." Now is probably the time for these assholes to have that very discussion.
