Re: [agi] AI Morality -- a hopeless quest

[C. David Noziglia]

----- Original Message ----- From: Philip Sutton To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 2:55 PM Subject: Re: [agi] AI Morality -- a hopeless quest Brad, Maybe what you said below is the key to friendly GAI.... > I don't think any human alive has the moral and ethical underpinnings > to allow them to resist the corruption of absolute power in the long > run.  We are all kept in check by our lack of power, the competition > of our fellow humans, the laws of society, and the instructions of our > peers.  Remove a human from that support framework and you will have a > human that will warp and shift over time.  We are designed to exist in > a social framework, and our fragile ethical code cannot function > properly in a vacuum.  If we create a *community* of AGIs that have ethics orientated architecture/ethical training then *they* might stand a chance of policing themselves. The situation is analagous to how we try (so far with not enough success, but with improving odds) to protect non-human species. Humans are the biggest threat to non-human species (well demonstrated) but there are more and more efforts being made by humans to stop that and to provide other species a chance to survive and continue evolving. I think that we need to structure and train AGIs knowing that the same scenario could be played out in relation to us as has happened between us and less poweful life - but we have the advantages that: -   we've seen where WE went wrong -   we can shape the deep ethical structure of AGIs from the start with     this meta issue in mind. Cheers, Philip I would second this, and note for the record the instance of the defense of the treatment of women in traditional societies.   In places like Pakistan and Arabia, apologists defend the second-class status of women by saying that they are being "protected" by their male relatives.  But without the ability to protect their own safety and status, such "protection" becomes honor killings and FGM.   The only guarantee of protection and rights is to give women the ability to protect themselves, and that's a tremendous cultural change.  Especially when such cultural traditions are claimed to be mandated by God. I guess the relevance here is that Philip has reached the core of this issue.  There are no guarantees in this business, especially when trying to predict the behavior of complex adaptive entities with cognitive abilities that we are assuming will be greater than ours.  Thus, the only safeguard is the classic one:  division of power.   C. David Noziglia Object Sciences Corporation 6359 Walker Lane, Alexandria, VA (703) 253-1095       "What is true and what is not? Only God knows. And, maybe, America."                                   Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi, Special to Arab News       "Just because something is obvious doesn't mean it's true."                  ---  Esmerelda Weatherwax, witch of Lancre