Comment by Sharlin
1 day ago
We know pathogens that are extremely contagious, and we know pathogens that are extremely deadly. We also know toxins that are lethal at nanogram/kg doses. There's no reason to believe that a sufficiently advanced intelligence couldn't come up with a way to combine those traits.
One plausible scenario is depicted in detail in "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies" (Yudkowsky & Soares 2025), so I refer you to that.
Still too hand wavey - "some super bad virus and AI makes every human on earth infected".
Unless you can detail exactly how this happens its still complete science fiction.
It’s easy to never have to change your mind about anything if you insist on unreasonable enough standard of evidence. It’s, like, one of the oldest tricks in the book. Luckily, it’s not like there’s any need to try to change your mind in particular.
>> if you insist on unreasonable enough standard of evidence
One single plausible scenario is not an unreasonable thing to ask for - just one.
If a politician/celebrity/tech person with significant influence/power claims that something might end humanity then they absolutely have the utterly minimal standard of evidence which is to describe one single realistic plausible mechanism at a detailed level that might lead to the worst possible thing ever to happen.
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Would you like me to design the pathogen for you?
> Unless you can detail exactly how this happens its still complete science fiction.
You're saying that if one were to describe this scenario in more detail, it'd be less of science fiction? That's a bit against the grain - usually it's the more detailed arguments that get dismissed as science fiction, while the less detailed ones get dismissed as abstract theorizing.
Why are you so insistent that people should post detailed plans for destroying the human race on public fora?
I don't think it is necessary for the argument to work. Magnus Carlsen can be confident he will beat me at chess without giving a detailed explanation of every move he will make, in advance.
I don't think it's about that. It's not about the step by step plan for the murder. It's about - how does "the AI" do it? Do we give it access to our world, or do we give it a body, so that it can take its own physical actions?
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>> Why are you so insistent that people should post detailed plans for destroying the human race on public fora?
Because its a mass hallucination/misconception/lie and lots of powerful people are saying that wiping out all humanity is possible, and I am saying, oh yeah, tell me ONE way that is truly possible.
If you make gigantic claims about some terrible disaster that might happen then I think you have the onus to give even one plausible explanation of how.
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Yeah sure let's do nothing then -- until it's too late. After all it's just all of humanity at stake
The underpants gnomes was supposed to be a joke.