Re: Existential risks

Curt Welch wrote:

I agree with all these positions except the one major error you and these
other people are making.

You are making the mistake of thinking that _we_ (the brain / the AI) is in
control. We are not. We never were. We are stupid ass reinforcement
learning machines that are total slaves to the hardware in us which
determines our prime motivations. We don't control those motivations, and
as a result, we don't control what is going t happen to us.

And like I've argued before, if we do learn to control our motivations, we
will just turn ourselves into wireheads.

But for now, it's the DNA which is in control. It makes no different how
"dumb" or poor of an engineering choice it happens to be. It's the
dominate life form on the planet right now.

The "information" is NOT important. The "information" is not the hardware
building the brains, which is building the AIs. The DNA and its cell which
is the hardware building everything right now.

It is the /information/ which is immortal - or potentially immortal.

DNA is just the medium it is stored in. Its atoms are recycled
whenever cells divide.

Already we are storing genomes in databases, and making sterile
hybrid organisms out of our crops. Soon the representations
in the databases will be what evolves. The DNA will then
just be an intermediate representation in dead-end cells -
in much the same way that RNA has been reduced to being an
intermediate representation in the form of t-RNA.

It is all too easy to see how the genetic medium could
shift like this. Information is fundamentally portable.

The idea that DNA molecule is somehow in charge seems simply
silly to me - plainly, the /information/ is what matters -
and information is fundamentally portable.
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Existential risks
    ... control. ... is the hardware building everything right now. ... DNA is just the medium it is stored in. ... intermediate representation in the form of t-RNA. ...
    (comp.ai.philosophy)
  • Re: DNA carries information
    ... I am actually on your side in the whole "DNA carries information" ... makes as it cascades down a hill in an avalanche has information. ... the term 'controlled' than rocks cascading down a hill, ... characterisation of control. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: DNA carries information
    ... I am actually on your side in the whole "DNA carries information" ... makes as it cascades down a hill in an avalanche has information. ... reactions which control DNA replication aren't any more deserving of ... the term 'controlled' than rocks cascading down a hill, ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: DNA carries information
    ... I am actually on your side in the whole "DNA carries information" ... makes as it cascades down a hill in an avalanche has information. ... the term 'controlled' than rocks cascading down a hill, ... characterisation of control. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: DNA carries information
    ... I am actually on your side in the whole "DNA carries information" ... characterisation of control. ... My reaction is that you are trying to build a castle on wet sand. ... testable predictions, ...
    (talk.origins)