Re: AI Prime Directive

Hara Ra (harara@shamanics.com)
Sat, 12 Sep 1998 07:59:18 -0700

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
>
>SF, yes. I have, for example, read "Tik-Tok" and "Roderick", which you refer
>to later on. In both cases, the cognitive nature of the Asimov loss is never
>explained, and is usually guessed to be a manufacturing flaw. You don't need
>"Tik-Tok" for that; it's available in "Frankenstein".

Have you actually read "Frankenstein"? The flaw was in the manufacturer, not the monster!

> Greg Egan's
>"Quarantine" is the only really detailed look (that I've read) at a coercion
>which fails for fundamental reasons of cognitive science.
>
A result well known in psychology - rewards always work better, last longer.

>attention, except for the AI-oriented stuff. _Ancient_ philosophy, maybe, as
>long as I avoid fools like the arch-traitor Plato.

Know thy Enemy! Or live the fate of the Ostrich.

>I hear about them (3 Laws of Robotics) all the time.
>Not necessarily from AI workers, but Asimov
>has done a very good job of teaching everyone to think that AIs need
coercions
>to keep them in order. Now I not only have to worry about the AIers, I have
>to worry about the venture capitalists and the marketers and the managers.
>
Feed em all Chicken Soup, I say!
(Kosher Chickens Only)

>Incredibly funny books - but they are not cognitive science. Reading them,
>you'd think: "My God, look what happens when robots go unrestrained! We'd
>better make extra sure to slap more coercions on them." That the robots go
>insane _because_ of the coercions, not in spite of them, is never suggested.
>
Coercions make people insane too.

One remark: Coercion exists. It works. If it didn't, evolution would have eliminated it long ago. In many areas, coercion results in one trial learning. A rat which eats bad food learns to avoid the food ever after. The rat NEVER eats that food again. This has some advantages in some situations.

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| Hara Ra <harara@shamanics.com> | 
| Box 8334 Santa Cruz, CA 95061  |
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| immortality for gods.          |
| Technology is the means by     |

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