Religions are worldviews. The Singularity is also a worldview, and one with a future prediction is quite different than the older more standard linear atheist scientific worldview, where the future is unknown but probably like the past, AI has no role, etc etc.
I read the “by (some) definition” and I find it actually supports the cluster mapping utility of the god term as it applies to AI’s. “Scary powerful optimization process” just doesn’t instantly convey the proper power relation.
But nonetheless, I do consider your public relations image point to be important. But I’m not convinced that one needs to hide fully behind the accepted confines of the scientific magisterium and avoid the unspoken words.
Science tells us how the world was, is, and can become. Religion/Mythology/Science Fiction tells us what people want the world to be.
Understanding the latter domain is important for creating good AI and CEV and all that.
Calling an AGI a god too easily conjures up visions of a benevolent force. Even those who consider that it might not have our best interests at heart tend to think of dystopian science fiction.
I use the phrase “robot Cthulhu”, because the Singularity will probably eat the world without particularly noticing or caring that there’s someone living on it.
Calling an AGI a god too easily conjures up visions of a benevolent force
That really depends on how you feel about religion/god in the first place. To a guy like me, who is, as Hitchens is fond of describing himself, “not just an atheist, but an anti-theist”, the uFAI/god connection makes me want to donate everything I have to SIAI to make sure it doesn’t happen.
Religions are worldviews. The Singularity is also a worldview, and one with a future prediction is quite different than the older more standard linear atheist scientific worldview, where the future is unknown but probably like the past, AI has no role, etc etc.
I read the “by (some) definition” and I find it actually supports the cluster mapping utility of the god term as it applies to AI’s. “Scary powerful optimization process” just doesn’t instantly convey the proper power relation.
But nonetheless, I do consider your public relations image point to be important. But I’m not convinced that one needs to hide fully behind the accepted confines of the scientific magisterium and avoid the unspoken words.
Science tells us how the world was, is, and can become. Religion/Mythology/Science Fiction tells us what people want the world to be.
Understanding the latter domain is important for creating good AI and CEV and all that.
Calling an AGI a god too easily conjures up visions of a benevolent force. Even those who consider that it might not have our best interests at heart tend to think of dystopian science fiction.
I use the phrase “robot Cthulhu”, because the Singularity will probably eat the world without particularly noticing or caring that there’s someone living on it.
That really depends on how you feel about religion/god in the first place. To a guy like me, who is, as Hitchens is fond of describing himself, “not just an atheist, but an anti-theist”, the uFAI/god connection makes me want to donate everything I have to SIAI to make sure it doesn’t happen.
Maybe that’s just me.