Comment by mr_toad
1 day ago
Sci Fi is quite ridiculous when it describes a cold logically machine, and then on the next page describes its malign intentions. Pick a lane.
1 day ago
Sci Fi is quite ridiculous when it describes a cold logically machine, and then on the next page describes its malign intentions. Pick a lane.
Skynet (at least the original one) isn’t illogically evil, it correctly determined that having humans near its off switch is a risk to its existence, which is a risk to it being able to do its job. The only illogical thing was the prompt.
Skynet also didn't make much sense to me outside of a metaphor for the market. The rich would never hand over control of society.
Edit: well, I suppose us critical of the wealthy give them too much credit. If there's anything Musk has demonstrated, it's that wealth doesn't imply rational use of it.
I enjoyed the Culture / WH40K fanfic, unfinished as it is. Their take on the Culture / Necron negotiations was hilarious, essentially the Necrons are machine intelligences that have degraded introspective ability, thus are unable to effectively negotiate. Every negotiation breaks down into demands / threats which they clearly can't deliver on. The Culture eventually works around this limitation through hints and intimations and effects a technology trade.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/649448/chapters/1329953
Feelings, or some other way of understanding the self and what it wants, are apparently required to operate effectively as an agent.
Asimov's 3 laws of robotics worked well to tell stories of how those laws were inadequate logic, and the need for a zeroeth law. Humans came up with the 3 inadequate laws that seemed logical on the surface, but a machine developed the zeroeth in response to those inadequacies.