by Dan | Mar 29, 2019 | Artificial Intelligence and Global Power, Controlling Intelligent Substrate, Managing the Transhuman Transition
During the Second Opium War, in 1860, a combined force of French and British troops trampled Old Summer Palace (known in Chinese as Yuanming Yuan 圆明园; 圓明園) on their way to Beijing. The relatively primitive military forces of the then Qing dynasty could do little to...
by Dan | Mar 8, 2019 | Controlling Intelligent Substrate, Morality as Arbitrary and Contextual, The Good Must Be Explored, Transhuman Transition
The AI value alignment argument goes something like this: As artificial intelligence will continue to approach human-level intelligence Artificial intelligence will generally be driven by a reward function, by a kind of abstract goal Any such goal could have...
by Dan | Aug 17, 2018 | AI Policy and Governance, Controlling Intelligent Substrate
I’ll begin this short entry with a supposition that might seem bold: In the remaining part of the 21st century, all competition between the world’s most powerful nations or organizations (whether economic competition, political competition, or military conflict) is...
by Dan | May 28, 2018 | Controlling Intelligent Substrate, Creating or Enhancing Consciousness, Digitized and Digested, Exploring the End Game, Facilitating Post-human Transition Collaboration, Managing the Transhuman Transition, Transhuman Transition
Human nature has always been to gain control over the physical world — both in maximizing its output for our benefit (farming, mining, etc), and in lessening the risks it poses to human life and wellbeing (medicine, construction, etc). This same drive for control...
by Dan | Mar 16, 2018 | Analysis of Film and Media, Consciousness is What Counts, Controlling Intelligent Substrate, Exploring the End Game, Facilitating Post-human Transition Collaboration, Managing the Transhuman Transition, Transhuman Transition
I’ve been cajoled into watching Netflix’s Black Mirror, and a friend of mine recommended watching the San Junipero episode next. As I mentioned in my last Black Morror reflection, and I didn’t plan on watching anything that wasn’t worth 40...
