Let’s consider a particular (implausible) strategy for building an AI:
* Start with a simulation of Earth.
* Keep waiting/restarting until evolution produces human-level intelligence, civilization, etc.
* Once the civilization is slightly below our stage of maturity, show them the real world and hand them the keys.
* (This only makes sense if the simulated civilization is much more powerful than us, and faces lower existential risk. That seems likely to me. For example, the resulting AIs would likely think much faster than us, and have a much larger effective population; they would be very robust to ecological disaster, and would face a qualitatively easier version of the AI alignment problem.)
I don’t think I understand the proposal.
1) Does “the resulting AIs” refer to the aliens who evolved in the simulation, or to AIs that those aliens build? (And if the latter, is it AIs that they build while still in the simulation, or after we’ve given them the keys to the world?)
2) If the civilization is below our stage of maturity, how is it also much more powerful than us?
3) Why would the aliens be robust to ecological disaster, and why would they face an easier alignment problem?
2) Because they are running in computers. They are less technologically mature than us, but the simulation is at ~1000x speed or whatever. Once we give them the keys they could very quickly overtake us.
3) Because they are running in computers. That directly protects them from collapse. And it means that they are in a much better place relative to the AI they build—for example they won’t think much slower than the AI.
The situation is similar to what would happen if we had implemented efficient brain uploading.
Would this approach have any advantages vs brain uploading? I would assume brain uploading to be much easier than running a realistic evolution simulation, and we would have to worry less about alignment.
I don’t think I understand the proposal.
1) Does “the resulting AIs” refer to the aliens who evolved in the simulation, or to AIs that those aliens build? (And if the latter, is it AIs that they build while still in the simulation, or after we’ve given them the keys to the world?)
2) If the civilization is below our stage of maturity, how is it also much more powerful than us?
3) Why would the aliens be robust to ecological disaster, and why would they face an easier alignment problem?
1) The aliens.
2) Because they are running in computers. They are less technologically mature than us, but the simulation is at ~1000x speed or whatever. Once we give them the keys they could very quickly overtake us.
3) Because they are running in computers. That directly protects them from collapse. And it means that they are in a much better place relative to the AI they build—for example they won’t think much slower than the AI.
The situation is similar to what would happen if we had implemented efficient brain uploading.
Would this approach have any advantages vs brain uploading? I would assume brain uploading to be much easier than running a realistic evolution simulation, and we would have to worry less about alignment.
You’d only do this if it was cheaper than uploading.