Thread

1. wewewedxfgdf · 1791070718 · focus · HN ↗

   Please explain exactly how all humanity could be wiped out.

   It's ridiculous - anyone who thinks about it for a minute or two will realize that its utterly impossible.

   Ordinary people/politicians don't understand AI so they turn off their rational mind and assume there is something super incredible some magical powers that they cannot understand that can destroy all humans.

   Even humans - the real risk to humanity - could not destroy all humans even if they tried. There is no plausible scenario.

   Even climate change and nuclear war and bio weapons - the most damaging mechanisms - would still only get some percentage of the people on earth.

   And if we are talking about Skynet and self replicating robots and Terminators - please, grow up.

   1. kzrdude · 1791072016 · focus · HN ↗

      I like you, I think very similarly. Humans are "like rats": we can live almost anywhere, we'll find a way to survive.

      But that just means we won't all be wiped out. We need to understand when discussing global issues, such as this or like climate change that it's about prosperity and quality of life. We're trying to plan for a good life (for all people?).

      1. mrob · 1791117403 · focus · HN ↗

         Humans already eliminated rats from Codfish Island/Whenua Hou, and that's just to protect some rare birds that people only moderately care about. It's not like we had some overwhelming reinforcement-learning drive to single-mindedly achieve our goal. Any unbounded goal (e.g. "find as many busy beaver Turing machines as possible") necessarily requires killing all life, because life requires resources to sustain it that could be instead used to achieve the goal.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.