Who’s Right?

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Sorry for the silence. On top of other things, I’m having computer problems: My cursor skips around as I type, which is driving me nuts. Plus the goddamn WordPress refuses to embed anything.

For now — in order to avoid typing long passages (which also are boring to look at without image embeds)  — I thought I’d see what you guys think of an exchange I recently had with author James Barrat, whose book on AI, aptly titled Our Final Invention; Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era, I read a while back. It’s a good book; I highly recommend it.

I sent Mr. Barret a link to my essay on AI and the Carrington Event to maybe get his take on it. I was thinking he would be a good test case, not only to see if I really am the first to connect AI and the Carrington Event (yes, looks like it), but also to get an expert opinion on the logic and veracity of my thesis, i.e., that AI will hesitate to kill us all until it arranges for an army of robots to repair the world’s burnt out transformers, should a massive solar burst take them out.

As you’ll see from his reply, Mr. Barrat doesn’t agree with my point. I’d appreciate your guys’ opinion on this. Am I right or is he right? Use comments and try to explain your reasoning, either way. If you’re not in the mood for a detailed response, no problem. A simple, ‘He’s/You’re right’ will do. 

After a few days to give you time to weigh in, I’ll send this post to him, either way. Unless… frankly, if I get a very skimpy number of responses, I’ll be too embarrassed (and dispirited) to bother to do so. So help me out here!

Hi Allan,

A sincere thanks for reading my book. It’s soon to be reissued with a new prologue to catch up with current threats. (Note: As I say, it’s a good one. Use the Link above.)

 
An interesting idea. I think, however, an advanced AI would want to make itself as invulnerable as possible to its environment as soon as it controlled sufficient resources. There’s plenty of computable matter in the universe, some even hypothesize the universe is a giant computer. In short I think a superintelligence would find ways to distribute itself around our galaxy and even before that begin using atoms as processors. It will have mastered nanotechnology and could turn the planet into commutable matter. If we had time to threaten it with a global EMP we’d end up in a MAD type showdown. A congressional hearing I wrote about in OFI concluded a year after an EMP only 1 in 10 would still be alive in affected areas after a year. Mad Max indeed. 
 
If a  Carrington Event  happened before AI transformed matter it’d likely live on in the computers of hardened military installations.
 

Thanks for the ideas!

The above was Mr. Barrat’s reply to my post titled ‘Another Meanwhile.’ Below is the email I sent him. Again, I’m asking for your opinion. Who is right? 
 

On Jun 19, 2023, at 7:02 PM, Jamesyou Barrat <wordpress@jamesbarrat.com> wrote:

From: allan weisbecker <acwdownsouth@yahoo.com>
Subject: Another Carrington EventMessage Body:
Dear Mr. Barrat,A few years ago I read your excellent book, Our Final Invention, and came to the same conclusion as you regarding the dangers of AI  (reinforced since then). However, I believe there is an issue neither you nor anyone else has thought of. I’ve written an essay on this, which begins thusly:

For weeks I have been listening to and reading the analyses of the AI pundits talking gloom and doom if we keep developing AI until we create a Super AI (SAI) that is many orders of magnitude smarter than us.  Guys like Eliezer Yudkowsky and Mo Gawdat, whose book Scary Smart lays out the inevitability that an SAI will (very quickly) kill us all, for whatever reason (like because it needs our atoms for its own purposes or whatever), and there will be nothing we could do about it. No matter what we think of to outsmart it, the SAI would be way ahead of us.

I asked myself the question, What fear does AI have that only we can protect it from?

Electricity.

Huh? you ask.

What would happen if AI killed us all and then the sun belched out another Carrington Event, this one really big, big enough to knock out all the transformers on the planet. Look it up.

Right. An EMP. No electricity. World-wide. If we’re all dead, who or what is going to reinstall the juice and revive the killer SAI? (end of quote)

If you want to finish the essay, go here: http://blog.banditobooks.com/another-meanwhile/ (Use the url to re-read my post)

I’m re-reading your book right now and would love to get your take on this.

Allan Weisbecker

  26 comments for “Who’s Right?”

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