Philosophy is arguing about the meanings of words. By "zombie" I mean a philosophical zombie. https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie
On the unrelated topic of friendly AI, we need to define what that means too. If you read my previous post on AGI requirements carefully, you will note that the extinction of humans and of all DNA based life falls within its scope without being explicitly unfriendly. I am open to discussion on whether this is a good idea or if the requirements need to be refined. (The issue is whether uploads are zombies. I contend there is no such thing). Avoid existential errors. Resist the temptation to skip too quickly to design. On Thu, Nov 7, 2019, 8:20 PM James Bowery <jabow...@gmail.com> wrote: > See my LinkedIn post "A Leggian Approach to "Friendly AI > <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leggian-approach-friendly-ai-james-bowery>" > for background. > > My 2ยข: > > This is related to the "consciousness" confusion in the following sense: > > Matt Mahoney's reductio ad absurdum of of the sensibility of > "consciousness" relies on its standing in opposition to "zombiness" (is > that a word?). A reasonably objective definition of "zombiness" is its > vernacular use in ethology to colorfully describe what, in "The Extended > Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene", Richard Dawkins describes as "Host > Phenotypes of Parasite Genes". > > Take, for example, this video of an altruistic cricket sacrificing his > life for his little friend <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df_iGe_JSzI>. > Such "altruists" are frequently referred to as "zombies" in popular > scientific literature > <https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/animals-source/0000016a-2c84-de00-a1fb-edd7b4940000> > . > > In evolutionary medical circles such "virulence" evolves to its "optimal" > level (ie: optimal virulence) through a battle between two opposing routes > into the next generation for replicators: > > Horizontal Transmission vs Vertical Transmission > > Vertical transmission occurs when a parasite's evolutionary fate is tied > to that of its host through reproduction -- in which case it becomes a > "mutualist". An example we're all familiar with is the probable > coevolution of wolves with Cro Magnon resulting in the mutualistic > relationship between what we call "humans" and "dogs": > > Babies and Puppies > > Nothing could be more lovable, eh? > > Horizontal Transmission is, by contrast, illustrated by the path-not-taken > with those wolves who thought "Take the baby and run and BREED!" > > The extreme form of "Take the baby and run and BREED!" is called > "parasitic castration" in which a parasite actually eats the genitals of > its host so as to divert resources to itself that would otherwise have gone > to the host's offspring. The resulting evolutionary "zombie" is entirely > "conscious", at least in some sense. > > However, if we think about "turning the universe into paperclips" as the > extreme of "unfriendliness", it becomes apparent that there is an > intermediate station in which an "unfriendly AI" would do something like Turk > humans without the slightest regard for their reproductive viability > <https://www.mturk.com/>, ending the human species -- at least that > portion the unfriendly AI found useful enough to Turk. Are humans who have > been Turked "conscious"? Perhaps a more meaningful question is: "Are they > are zombies?" > > > > > > > > > > *Artificial General Intelligence List <https://agi.topicbox.com/latest>* > / AGI / see discussions <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi> + > participants <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/members> + delivery > options <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription> Permalink > <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/T251f13454e6192d4-Mb4eccaa4450899c6d97532fd> > ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/T251f13454e6192d4-M58fc1de2570abc931efa7885 Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
