Thanks Rob

On 17 March 2015 at 10:46, Nanograte Knowledge Technologies via AGI <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi Calum
>
> I've read through some of your post-Seville comments and your review on
> Bostrom's book. Thank you for a well-balanced and informative perspective.
> http://pandoras-brain.com/
>
>
> I think your finest moment of this book review was contained in just 3
> words.
> "In any case, Bostrom’s main argument – that we should take the prospect
> of superintelligence very seriously – is surely right.  Towards the end of
> book he issues a powerful rallying cry: “Before the prospect of an
> intelligence explosion, we humans are like small children playing with a
> bomb. … [The] sensible thing to do would be to put it down gently, back out
> of the room, and contact the nearest adult.  [But] the chances that we will
> *all *find the sense to put down the dangerous stuff seems almost
> negligible.  … Nor is there a grown-up in sight.  [So] in the teeth of this
> most unnatural and inhuman problem [we] need to bring all our human
> resourcefulness to bear on its solution.”
> Amen to that."
>
> Rob
> ------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 09:33:22 +0100
>
> Subject: Re: [agi] AI Protest in Texas
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
>
> Steve
>
> I sympathise with your very understandable preference not to be targeted
> by anti-AI crazies!
>
> What do you think is the best way to try and shape the growing public
> debate about AGI?  Following Bostrom's book, and the comments by Hawking,
> Musk and Gates, a fair proportion of the general public is now aware that
> AGI might arrive in the medium term, and that it will have a very big
> impact.
>
> Some AI researchers seem to be responding by saying, "Don't worry, it
> can't happen for centuries, if ever".  No doubt some of them genuinely
> believe that, but I wonder whether some are saying it in the (forlorn?)
> hope the debate will go away. It won't.  In fact I suspect that the new
> Avengers movie will kick it up a level.
>
> Others are saying, "Don't worry, AGI cannot and will not harm humans."  To
> my mind (and I realise I may be in a small minority here on this) that is
> hard to be certain about - as Bostrom demonstrated.
>
> Yet others are saying, "AI researcher will solve the problem long before
> AGI arrives, and it's best not to worry everyone else in the meantime."
>  That seems a dangerous approach to me.  If the public ever feels (rightly
> or wrongly) that things have been hidden from them, they will react badly.
>
> But I do definitely sympathise with the desire not to be targeted by
> crazies, or to be vilified by journalists who have half-understood the
> situation!
>
> I am not an AI researcher.  I am a retired businessman now resuming a
> lapsed career as a writer, and my subject is AGI.  My first novel,
> Pandora's Brain, is just out.  I chose the subject because I think it is
> the most important one in the world, bar none.
>
> The most likely outcome of my writing, of course, is zilch.  Half a
> million new books are published in the US and the UK every year, and it
> would be arrogant to think mine will stand out.  But I work hard on them,
> and one can dream.
>
> In the unlikely event that more than a handful of people will read
> Pandora, I want to make a responsible contribution to the debate.  That is
> why I chose the subject in the first place.
>
> Having said all this, I'll understand if Ben just kicks me off the forum!
>
> Regards
> Calum
>
>
>
> On 17 March 2015 at 08:36, Steve Richfield via AGI <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> The BIG problem that threatens the safety of everyone on this forum are
> crazies like some on this forum who publicly (this AGI forum is public and
> is Google searchable) claim that potentially dangerous AGIs will be up in
> running in 5 years or whenever. Regardless of the truth or lack thereof,
> movies (like the Terminator series) portraying the great social value of
> KILLING people who develop AGIs is enough to motivate other crazies out
> there to do really bad things to the crazies who make such statements.
>
> Which of the crazies are more dangerous TO ME. That is easy - it is the
> crazies on this forum, who might guide other crazies to my door. There are
> LOTS of murderous crazies in our world, which I can live with, so long as
> no one is guiding them TO ME.
>
> It is really hard to believe that ANYONE who is SO stupid to be publicly
> making such obviously dangerous statements actually thinks they are smart
> enough to participate in making a genuine AGI. There is NO WAY that this
> could possibly happen. Stupid is forever.
>
> Personally, I have absolutely NO expectation of any sort of dangerous AGIs
> emerging anytime soon, most especially from people who are stupid enough to
> make such obviously dangerous public statements.
>
> The less mentally impaired participants on this forum are quietly working
> on their respective theories WITHOUT making such incendiary statements.
>
> If you the reader have made such public statements in the past, then GIVE
> UP working on AGI technology, because you have failed the intelligence test
> and are obviously NOT smart enough to ever succeed. Further, your potential
> future colleagues will see you as being too dangerous to have as an
> associate.
>
> If you are an assassin looking for someone to kill, then look elsewhere.
> These guys aren't worth your ammunition.
>
> *BEN*: As an act of social responsibility, you should purge ALL postings,
> including this posting, that mentions any sort of short time horizon for
> AGI development, and go all the way back to the beginning of this forum to
> do so. That demonstrations like the one in Texas can even come about shows
> the pushback that such statements can attract. Do we really need to be seen
> as dangerous social pariahs?
>
> Steve
> ==================
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 16, 2015 at 7:21 PM, Nanograte Knowledge Technologies via AGI
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> If I may say something pelase? To my understanding, Google would and Elon
> Musk would.
>
> However, AI is not the real threat. In my most-humble opinion, it is the
> key to the solution to a real threat. The technology would still be
> developed, regardless, and is probably being hastened as we speak. Perhaps
> the following tenets should be applied to "their" rationale: "The cat's out
> of the bag. What they don't know, won't harm them. Let's just go
> underground and hurry it up some more." As such then, protests are
> insignificant, red herrings. Protests could be staged to support public
> statements, as a distraction and disabling strategy to detract from the
> real issues at hand. Who knows? Who cares? Most people don't even read. I
> agree more with the 5-year outlook, and it could even become 4, depending
> on how quickly the key constraints to such progress could be resolved by
> people like us.
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 08:39:22 +0800
> Subject: Re: [agi] AI Protest in Texas
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> CC: [email protected]
>
>
>
> yeah, that's more consistent with what I've heard from Demis in the past...
>
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 8:30 AM, Calum Chace <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Sorry, Ben, it wasn't centuries for Hassabis.  It was decades.  Rather an
> important difference!
>
> Last year, the American entrepreneur, Elon Musk, one of Deep Mind’s early
> investors, described AI as humanity’s greatest existential threat. “Unless
> you have direct exposure to groups like Deepmind, you have no idea how fast
> [AI] is growing,” he said. “The risk of something seriously dangerous
> happening is in the five year timeframe. Ten years at most.”
>
> However, the Google team played down the concerns. “We agree with him
> there are risks that need to be borne in mind, but we’re decades away from
> any sort of technology that we need to worry about,” Hassabis said.
>
>
> http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/25/google-develops-computer-program-capable-of-learning-tasks-independently
>
> Calum
>
> On 17 March 2015 at 01:20, Ben Goertzel <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> Did Demis really say AGI is hundreds of years away?   That surprises me....
>
> I think Ng actually believes AGI is far off, he's conservative but I
> believe he's a straight shooter.
>
> I don't know Yann and Christof F2F so I don't have a strong opinion on
> their attitudes...
>
> -- Ben
>
> On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 8:13 AM, Calum Chace <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Yes, but Austin, of all places.
>
> Ben, why do you think Yann LeCun, Andrew Ng, Christof Koch and Demis
> Hassabis have all been lining up to say that AGI is hundreds of years
> away?  Are they worried about this sort of reaction?
>
> On 17 March 2015 at 01:10, Ben Goertzel via AGI <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> And of course it has to be in Texas 8-D ...
>
> On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 5:17 AM, Piaget Modeler via AGI <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> Straight out of Stephen Spielberg's film: A.I.
>
> ~PM
>
> > Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2015 12:59:25 -0700
> > Subject: Re: [agi] AI Protest in Texas
> > From: [email protected]
> > To: [email protected]
>
> >
> > On 3/16/15, Aaron Hosford <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > This sort of thing was predicted 50 years ago.
> > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butlerian_Jihad
> > >
> > > Nonetheless, yes, mind blowing.
> > >
> > > On Mon, Mar 16, 2015 at 11:41 AM, Mike Archbold via AGI <
> [email protected]>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> >
> > Bultlerian, named after a guy from Stanwood, WA. I'm not far from
> > there, actually, and there is a beautiful old Scandinavian farming
> > community there, with falling down barns and images of tall blonde
> > girls.
> >
> > A woman in the building I live in told me I have to find Jesus right
> > away after she took a look at my book, presently at position about
> > 5,000,000 on amazon. If I don't find Jesus right away it is all over.
> >
> > What a strange world.
> >
> > >>
> > >>
> http://en.yibada.com/articles/19837/20150316/humans-hold-anti-ai-robot-protest-sxsw-texas.htm
> > >>
> > >> I find this kind of mind blowing. Down with robots? Down with AI?
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> -------------------------------------------
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> --
> Ben Goertzel, PhD
> http://goertzel.org
>
> "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one
> persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress
> depends on the unreasonable man." -- George Bernard Shaw
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>
>
> --
> Regards
>
> Calum
>
>
>
>
> --
> Ben Goertzel, PhD
> http://goertzel.org
>
> "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one
> persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress
> depends on the unreasonable man." -- George Bernard Shaw
>
>
>
>
> --
> Regards
>
> Calum
>
>
>
>
> --
> Ben Goertzel, PhD
> http://goertzel.org
>
> "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one
> persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress
> depends on the unreasonable man." -- George Bernard Shaw
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>
> --
> Full employment can be had with the stoke of a pen. Simply institute a six
> hour workday. That will easily create enough new jobs to bring back full
> employment.
>
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> --
> Regards
>
> Calum
>
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-- 
Regards

Calum



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