There is a behavioral definition of alignment, by what it is not, “something that is smarter than humans that does not turn humanity’s future into what we now would consider an extreme dystopia”. Note a lot of assumptions there, including what counts as “we”, “now” and “extreme”. I think the minimum acceptable would be something like “not completely exterminated”, “enjoying their life on average as much as humans do now or at least not yearning for death that never comes”, and maybe building on that. But then intuitions diverge quickly and strongly. For example some would be ecstatic to be a part of a unified galactic mind, others would be horrified by the loss of individuality. Some would be fine with wireheading, others consider it terrible. Some are happy to live in a simulation, others are horrified by the idea. Personally, I think it would be nice to give everyone the kind of universe they want, without causing suffering to other sentience, whatever counts as sentience.
Perspective is powerful. As you say, one person’s wonderful is another person’s terrible. Heck, maybe people even change their minds, right? Oof! “Yesterday I was feeling pretty hive-mindy, but today I’m digging being alone, quote unquote”, as it were.
Maybe that’s already the reality we inhabit. Perhaps, we can change likes and dislikes on a whim, if we, um, like.
Holy molely! what if it turns out we chose all of this?!? ARG! What if this is the universe we want?! - - - I guess I’m mostly “sad” that there’s so many who’s minds go right to getting exterminated. Especially since far worse would be something like Monsters Inc where the “machines” learn that fear generates the most energy or whatnot[1] so they just create/harness consciousnesses (us)[2] and put them under stress to extract their essence like some Skeksis asshole[3] extracting life or whatnot from a Gelfling. Because fear (especially of extermination) can lead us to make poor decisions, historically[4] speaking.
It strikes me that a lot of this is philosophy 101 ideas that people should be well aware of— worn the hard edges smooth of— and yet it seems they haven’t much contemplated. Can we even really define “harm”? Is it like suffering? Suffering sucks, and you’d think we didn’t need it, and yet we have it. I’ve suffered a broken heart before, a few times now, and while part of me thinks “ouch”, another part of me thinks “better to have loved and lost than never loved at all, and actually, experiencing that loss, has made me a more complete human!”. Perhaps just rationalizing. Why does bad stuff happen to good people, is another one of those basic questions, but one that kind of relates maybe— as what is “aligned”, in truth? Is pain bad? And is this my last beer? but back on topic here…
Like, really?— we’re going to go right to how to enforce morals and ethics for computer programs, without being able to even definitively define what these morals and ethics are for us[5]?
If it were mostly people with a lack of experience I would understand, but plenty of people I’ve seen advocating for ideas that are objectively terrifying[6] are well aware of some of the inherent problems with the ideas, but because it’s “AI” they somehow think it’s different from, you know, controlling “real” intelligence.
There is a behavioral definition of alignment, by what it is not, “something that is smarter than humans that does not turn humanity’s future into what we now would consider an extreme dystopia”. Note a lot of assumptions there, including what counts as “we”, “now” and “extreme”. I think the minimum acceptable would be something like “not completely exterminated”, “enjoying their life on average as much as humans do now or at least not yearning for death that never comes”, and maybe building on that. But then intuitions diverge quickly and strongly. For example some would be ecstatic to be a part of a unified galactic mind, others would be horrified by the loss of individuality. Some would be fine with wireheading, others consider it terrible. Some are happy to live in a simulation, others are horrified by the idea. Personally, I think it would be nice to give everyone the kind of universe they want, without causing suffering to other sentience, whatever counts as sentience.
Perspective is powerful. As you say, one person’s wonderful is another person’s terrible. Heck, maybe people even change their minds, right? Oof! “Yesterday I was feeling pretty hive-mindy, but today I’m digging being alone, quote unquote”, as it were.
Maybe that’s already the reality we inhabit. Perhaps, we can change likes and dislikes on a whim, if we, um, like.
Holy molely! what if it turns out we chose all of this?!? ARG! What if this is the universe we want?!
- - -
I guess I’m mostly “sad” that there’s so many who’s minds go right to getting exterminated. Especially since far worse would be something like Monsters Inc where the “machines” learn that fear generates the most energy or whatnot[1] so they just create/harness consciousnesses (us)[2] and put them under stress to extract their essence like some Skeksis asshole[3] extracting life or whatnot from a Gelfling. Because fear (especially of extermination) can lead us to make poor decisions, historically[4] speaking.
It strikes me that a lot of this is philosophy 101 ideas that people should be well aware of— worn the hard edges smooth of— and yet it seems they haven’t much contemplated. Can we even really define “harm”? Is it like suffering? Suffering sucks, and you’d think we didn’t need it, and yet we have it. I’ve suffered a broken heart before, a few times now, and while part of me thinks “ouch”, another part of me thinks “better to have loved and lost than never loved at all, and actually, experiencing that loss, has made me a more complete human!”. Perhaps just rationalizing. Why does bad stuff happen to good people, is another one of those basic questions, but one that kind of relates maybe— as what is “aligned”, in truth? Is pain bad? And is this my last beer? but back on topic here…
Like, really?— we’re going to go right to how to enforce morals and ethics for computer programs, without being able to even definitively define what these morals and ethics are for us[5]?
If it were mostly people with a lack of experience I would understand, but plenty of people I’ve seen advocating for ideas that are objectively terrifying[6] are well aware of some of the inherent problems with the ideas, but because it’s “AI” they somehow think it’s different from, you know, controlling “real” intelligence.
few know that The Matrix was inspired by this movie
hopefully it’s not just me in here
I denote asshole as maybe there are some chill Skeksises (Skeksi?)— I haven’t finished the latest series
assuming time is real, or exists, or you know what I mean. Not illusion— as lunchtime is doubly.
and don’t even get me started on folk who seriously be like “what if the program doesn’t stop running when we tell it to?”[7]
monitor all software and hardware usage so we know if people are doing Bad Stuff with AI
makes me think of a classic AI movie called Electric Dreams