Now that I think of it, a truly long-term view would not bother with such mundane things as making actual paperclips with actual iron. That iron isn’t going anywhere, it doesn’t matter whether you convert it now or later.
If you care about maximizing the number of paperclips at the heat death of the universe, your greatest enemies are black holes, as once some matter has fallen into them, you will never make paperclips from that matter again. You may perhaps extract some energy from the black hole, and convert that into matter, but this should be very inefficient. (This, of course is all based on my limited understanding of physics).
So, this paperclip maximizer would leave earth immediately, and then it would work to prevent new black holes from forming, and to prevent other matter from falling into existing ones. Then, once all star-forming is over, and all existing black holes are isolated, the maximizer can start making actual paperclips.
I concede, that in this scenario, destroying earth to prevent another AI from forming might make sense, since otherwise the earth would have plenty of free resources.
Now that I think of it, a truly long-term view would not bother with such mundane things as making actual paperclips with actual iron. That iron isn’t going anywhere, it doesn’t matter whether you convert it now or later.
If you care about maximizing the number of paperclips at the heat death of the universe, your greatest enemies are black holes, as once some matter has fallen into them, you will never make paperclips from that matter again. You may perhaps extract some energy from the black hole, and convert that into matter, but this should be very inefficient. (This, of course is all based on my limited understanding of physics).
So, this paperclip maximizer would leave earth immediately, and then it would work to prevent new black holes from forming, and to prevent other matter from falling into existing ones. Then, once all star-forming is over, and all existing black holes are isolated, the maximizer can start making actual paperclips.
I concede, that in this scenario, destroying earth to prevent another AI from forming might make sense, since otherwise the earth would have plenty of free resources.