Richard Robertson

Matt wrote:
Likewise with bestiality and necrophilia… the real issue (for me at least) is that there is not, and can never be, informed consent.

It took a second reading to hit me: Is it really necessary to get consent from a dead person?

Short digression, finally got me a decent phone, but still learning tweaks like how to stop it from feeding audible alerts to me, especially during sleeping hours, like when I accidentally set the sleep time for podcasts to 75 hours instead of 75 minutes, and so I’m alerted and wake up in the middle of a loooong Joe Rogan and Sam Harris discussion…[Read more]

I lean toward A’s self-defense, also thinking longer term wrt considering how B might treat the rest of the world after defeating A. Meanwhile, for scenarios like this and lesser dire, I’m in favor of designing weapons that aren’t so indiscriminant, and are more precise in their targeting. I include AI/drone weapons in this category, for as long…[Read more]

I’ll think y’all are expecting AI to have drives or motives, which it may indeed be said to have someday. But before that day comes, I’ll say again, I feel increasingly certain that powerful AI will be designed and owned by humans that implant their own drives and motives into it. If and when AI goes rogue, as it were, it will most likely be…[Read more]

Viruses are like any other life form. All we do is live and reproduce and try to stop ourselves being killed.  Everything else we do is fluff to keep us occupied whilst we live and reproduce and try to stop ourselves being killed.

Its what makes ‘heaven’ so futile.  No death, no reproduction, nothing at all that generates adrenaline. Not sure I…[Read more]

But would the new AI robots be programmed to ‘thrive’?

AI that exceeds human intelligence will happen. The only question in my mind is who’s interests will it serve? An aggressive nation-state that designs and owns it? An oligarchy? Technocracy? Its cadre of inventors? Glossy-eyed programmer idealists with their own plan for the future?