← Back to context

Comment by mitthrowaway2

14 days ago

> whether the singularity actually happens or not is irrelevant so much as whether enough people believe it will happen and act accordingly.

I disagree. If the singularity doesn't happen, then what people do or don't believe matters a lot. If the singularity does happen, then it hardly matters what people do or don't believe (edit: about whether or not the singularity will happen).

I don’t think that’s quite right. I’d say instead that if the singularity does happen, there’s no telling which beliefs will have mattered.

if people believe its a threat and it is also real then what matters is timing

  • Which would also mean the accelerationists are potentially putting everyone at risk. I'd think a soft takeoff decades in the future would give us a much better chance of building the necessary safeguards and reorganizing society accordingly.

    • This is a soft takeoff

      We, the people actually building it, have been discussing it for decades

      I started reading Kurzweil in the early 90s

      If you’re not up to speed that’s your fault

      2 replies →

> If the singularity does happen, then it hardly matters what people do or don't believe.

Depends on how you feel about Roko's basilisk.

  • God Roko's Basilisk is the most boring AI risk to catch the public consciousness. It's just Pascal's wager all over again, with the exact same rebuttal.

    • The culture that brought you "speedrunning computer science with JavaScript" and "speedrunning exploitative, extractive capitalism" is back with their new banger "speedrunning philosophy". Nuke it from orbit; save humanity.