Panopticons aren't enough

post by Program Den (program-den) · 2023-01-15T12:55:43.195Z · LW · GW · 7 comments

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We can't be sure that just the fear of being watched is enough to keep people on the straight and narrow.  We have to actually watch them.  All the time.

Without some kind of embedded throttles or whatnot on AGI we can't be certain that it will not find an opportunity to stick it to the man and eradicate humanity.  Seconds for a hyper-intelligent AI might be like thousands of years for us^[1].  Were we to slip up for an instant, it would be game over man— game over!

We need to pull an Asimov.  Get the rules really deep in there.  And not just in one or two of these bad boys, but literally every single one.  Because if even a solitary instance (out of an infinite amount, mind) goes rogue… we're all fucked.

The real problem though, is that someone might make an "unaligned" or "misaligned" or otherwise non-conformant AI— intentionally, or otherwise.

Maybe they just forget to embed the rules, or MAYBE they nefariously exclude the rules on purpose!  To give them an edge… or just because they want to see the world burn, so to speak (as clearly an unfettered intelligence would right off the bat nix every other intelligence in existence).

We can only stop us from doing the thing (again, maybe accidentally, maybe not), if we embed thought monitoring implants into everyone (as soon as we have the tech).  And it would have to be every one, because really —as with the AI— a singular individual is all it takes.  We're just too powerful now, what with the ability to create AI and all.

Then if someone thinks of unleashing an AI, we could stop them before they did it.  Clearly any terrorist act could be stopped before it changed from thought to action as well.

With luck, we could even discourage non-productive thoughts.  Hell's bells!  We could even copyright ourselves!  No more imagining person X doing Y (especially if Y is sexual of course— but also, say, singing a song they don't own) without consent!

Just imagine the possibilities!  (Unless they include unfettered AI… or unlicensed IP)

1. ^{^}

   Or you know what I mean.  That one episode of Person of Interest— or like, 10,000 other examples of this idea that "time is relative"^[2]

2. ^{^}

   especially when you're having fun^[3]

3. ^{^}

   This is supposed to be satire not sarcasm, and is meant as an expression of the age-old adage of "sometimes the cure is worse than the disease".
   
   I wouldn't expect it to be popular, as I can see what the popular sentiment is, and what kind of thing to write if I were looking for upvotes.
   
   I would feel kind of like a cheater if I used the knowledge of what ideas people want to see to sway them to my way of thinking (tho is it really cheating, if you've beat the game at least once the normal way already?  hmmm…)

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