I strongly agree that trying to stop uFAI by killing people is a really bad idea. The problem is that this is not the first time the idea is resurfacing and won’t be the last time. All the rational arguments against it are now buried in a downvoted and deleted thread and under some amount of hypocritical outrage.
...it is never a rational thing to talk about killing members of a named, small group on the public internet because if/when anything bad happens to them, the finger will point at those doing the talking.
The finger might also point at those who scared people about the dangers of AGI research but never took the effort to publicly distance themselves from extreme measures.
Were anyone to actually get killed as a result of unstable people reading this thread...
What if anyone gets killed as a result of not reading this thread because he was never exposed to the arguments of why it would be a really bad idea to violently oppose AGI research?
I trust you’ll do the right thing. I just wanted to point that out.
All the rational arguments against it are now buried in a downvoted and deleted thread
Exactly right. The comment by CarlShuman is valuable. To the extent that it warrants a thread.
What if anyone gets killed as a result of not reading this thread because he was never exposed to the arguments of why it would be a really bad idea to violently oppose AGI research?
Passionately suppressing the conversation could also convey a message of “Shush. Don’t tell anyone.” as well as showing you take the idea seriously. This is in stark contrast to signalling that you think the whole idea is just silly, because reasoning like Carl’s is so damn obvious.
I also don’t believe any of the ‘outrage’ in this thread has been ‘hypocritical’ - any more than I believe that those advocating murder have been. Certainly in my own case I have argued against killing anyone, and I have done so consistently—I don’t believe I’ve said anything at all hypocritical here.
“The finger might also point at those who scared people about the dangers of AGI research but never took the effort to publicly distance themselves from extreme measures.”
I absolutely agree. Personally I don’t go around scaring people about AGI research because I don’t find it scary. I also think Eliezer, at least, has done a reasonable job of distancing himself from ‘extreme measures’.
“What if anyone gets killed as a result of not reading this thread because he was never exposed to the arguments of why it would be a really bad idea to violently oppose AGI research?”
Unfortunately, there are very few people in this thread making those arguments, and a large number making (in my view extremely bad) arguments for the other side...
I strongly agree that trying to stop uFAI by killing people is a really bad idea. The problem is that this is not the first time the idea is resurfacing and won’t be the last time. All the rational arguments against it are now buried in a downvoted and deleted thread and under some amount of hypocritical outrage.
The finger might also point at those who scared people about the dangers of AGI research but never took the effort to publicly distance themselves from extreme measures.
What if anyone gets killed as a result of not reading this thread because he was never exposed to the arguments of why it would be a really bad idea to violently oppose AGI research?
I trust you’ll do the right thing. I just wanted to point that out.
Exactly right. The comment by CarlShuman is valuable. To the extent that it warrants a thread.
Passionately suppressing the conversation could also convey a message of “Shush. Don’t tell anyone.” as well as showing you take the idea seriously. This is in stark contrast to signalling that you think the whole idea is just silly, because reasoning like Carl’s is so damn obvious.
I also don’t believe any of the ‘outrage’ in this thread has been ‘hypocritical’ - any more than I believe that those advocating murder have been. Certainly in my own case I have argued against killing anyone, and I have done so consistently—I don’t believe I’ve said anything at all hypocritical here.
“The finger might also point at those who scared people about the dangers of AGI research but never took the effort to publicly distance themselves from extreme measures.”
I absolutely agree. Personally I don’t go around scaring people about AGI research because I don’t find it scary. I also think Eliezer, at least, has done a reasonable job of distancing himself from ‘extreme measures’.
“What if anyone gets killed as a result of not reading this thread because he was never exposed to the arguments of why it would be a really bad idea to violently oppose AGI research?”
Unfortunately, there are very few people in this thread making those arguments, and a large number making (in my view extremely bad) arguments for the other side...