Let Me Take That Off Your Hands:
Arrive in Rhodes. Future emperor Tiberius is there, fleeing his destiny and trying to live a normal life. Tell him that you’re a time traveler from the future, and prove it with detailed prophecies of the next few years, including the fact that Caesar’s heirs are about to die, leaving him sole heir to the throne. Warn him that when he eventually becomes emperor, he’ll be miserable and unpopular, in part because it was clear that he never wanted the job. Persuade him that you’re much better qualified, due to your advanced knowledge and ethics. Suggest that, when he’s eventually begged to return to Rome, he do so on the condition that he be allowed to name you his heir. Spend the next decade ensconced in Rhodes, avoiding the butterfly effect, reinventing future technology, and translating The Lord of the Rings into Latin. When Tiberius is asked to become emperor, he invites you to join him as his chief advisor. For a few years, you prove your mettle and win popular support with your technology and literature. Tiberius then retires to Rhodes, leaving you in charge as regent. Nobody wants to assassinate you since that would just force Tiberius to come back. When Tiberius dies, you become the emperor in title as you have long been in fact.
Tell him that you’re a time traveler from the future, and prove it with detailed prophecies of the next few years, including the fact that Caesar’s heirs are about to die, leaving him sole heir to the throne.
While this plan would work in the scenario as specified by Yvain, we should probably disallow these kinds of solutions. We are trying to simulate a situation where a transhuman AI emerges in our own world; and, unlike Yvain’s time traveler, such an AI would not have any foreknowledge of the future… Unless, of course, it becomes an oracle of some sort.
Wouldn’t the AI practically need to be an Oracle in order to predict all the upcoming historical events down to the specific date ? It would need more than intelligence, it would need nigh omniscience as well, IMO.
Even with current knowledge, we’re not really omniscient about what happened in the past. I know the Romans were good record-keepers (I’m not sure how good), but I would be surprised if there weren’t at least some errors and omissions in the small details.
If we did have omniscient knowledge, I would suggest that the situation might be most analogous after several years—when you could still make predictions with high accuracy, but never really being sure that something you’ve done has slightly changed the dates or other details of specific events.
Let Me Take That Off Your Hands: Arrive in Rhodes. Future emperor Tiberius is there, fleeing his destiny and trying to live a normal life. Tell him that you’re a time traveler from the future, and prove it with detailed prophecies of the next few years, including the fact that Caesar’s heirs are about to die, leaving him sole heir to the throne. Warn him that when he eventually becomes emperor, he’ll be miserable and unpopular, in part because it was clear that he never wanted the job. Persuade him that you’re much better qualified, due to your advanced knowledge and ethics. Suggest that, when he’s eventually begged to return to Rome, he do so on the condition that he be allowed to name you his heir. Spend the next decade ensconced in Rhodes, avoiding the butterfly effect, reinventing future technology, and translating The Lord of the Rings into Latin. When Tiberius is asked to become emperor, he invites you to join him as his chief advisor. For a few years, you prove your mettle and win popular support with your technology and literature. Tiberius then retires to Rhodes, leaving you in charge as regent. Nobody wants to assassinate you since that would just force Tiberius to come back. When Tiberius dies, you become the emperor in title as you have long been in fact.
While this plan would work in the scenario as specified by Yvain, we should probably disallow these kinds of solutions. We are trying to simulate a situation where a transhuman AI emerges in our own world; and, unlike Yvain’s time traveler, such an AI would not have any foreknowledge of the future… Unless, of course, it becomes an oracle of some sort.
Perhaps the foreknowledge could be considered as analogous to the extra intelligence an AI would have.
Wouldn’t the AI practically need to be an Oracle in order to predict all the upcoming historical events down to the specific date ? It would need more than intelligence, it would need nigh omniscience as well, IMO.
Even with current knowledge, we’re not really omniscient about what happened in the past. I know the Romans were good record-keepers (I’m not sure how good), but I would be surprised if there weren’t at least some errors and omissions in the small details.
If we did have omniscient knowledge, I would suggest that the situation might be most analogous after several years—when you could still make predictions with high accuracy, but never really being sure that something you’ve done has slightly changed the dates or other details of specific events.