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Old 03-12-2012, 05:43 AM   #1
vicky_molokh
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Default Pro- and counter- Pan-Sapient Rights Memetic Campaigns

Greetings, all!

Stumbled on this video. IMO, it makes a good example of what a pro-Pan-Sapient Rights memetic campaign can look like. If you ignore the references to PS3, that is. Yeah, I know SAIs can be programmed to enjoy their work, but in a sense, so can biosophonts (between Social Engineering and some of the UT/BIO tools that are present in THS). The video can still be a good bit of Propaganda, and will definitely divide the viewers' reactions between something along the lines of functionalists and descartians.

Anyone got their own ideas on the topic to share? Doesn't have to be video or even a link. Could be anything.

Thanks in advance!
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Old 03-12-2012, 11:05 AM   #2
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Default Re: Pro- and counter- Pan-Sapient Rights Memetic Campaigns

The problem with comparing programming A.I.s to enjoy their work vs. biosophonts, is that you have to change the living, while A.I.s have no initial programming against it. Or put another way, why would you create an A.I. that doesn't "enjoy" what it's made to do best? That seem crueler if you care about their "feelings".
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Old 03-12-2012, 12:13 PM   #3
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Default Re: Pro- and counter- Pan-Sapient Rights Memetic Campaigns

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
The problem with comparing programming A.I.s to enjoy their work vs. biosophonts, is that you have to change the living, while A.I.s have no initial programming against it. Or put another way, why would you create an A.I. that doesn't "enjoy" what it's made to do best? That seem crueler if you care about their "feelings".
Because it's often cheaper and quicker to copy and adapt an already functional software tool that does most of what you want. Volitional AIs are also supposed to anticipate and improvise, so they may have self-instructed programming to overcome if mission objectives or even users change.

When I train a neural network to find objects by showing it a bowl of fruit with outlines, it is later able to find all sorts of objects like boats and trees it has never seen before. (That is, in the sense of outlining them in pictures; it doesn't identify the objects or otherwise treat them as entities in any way.) When I attempt to teach the same neural network to shade objects, sometimes it learns the new task as well as a freshly initiated one and sometimes it gets stuck at a poor level of performance, but it usually does one or the other quickly enough to be worth trying.

If a volitional AI used this sort of procedure on parts of itself, it might be dissatisfied with its inability to adapt itself to the new tasks at hand, and the devotion of greater resources to fix the problem might manifest as a distracted affect that a human would interpret as pensive.
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Old 03-12-2012, 01:08 PM   #4
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Default Re: Pro- and counter- Pan-Sapient Rights Memetic Campaigns

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
The problem with comparing programming A.I.s to enjoy their work vs. biosophonts, is that you have to change the living, while A.I.s have no initial programming against it. Or put another way, why would you create an A.I. that doesn't "enjoy" what it's made to do best? That seem crueler if you care about their "feelings".
Same can be said of the Eros-series parahuman/bioroid model (to pick an example that is both close to the linked piece of propaganda, and emotionally charged on its own).
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Old 03-12-2012, 01:17 PM   #5
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Default Re: Pro- and counter- Pan-Sapient Rights Memetic Campaigns

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Same can be said of the Eros-series parahuman/bioroid model (to pick an example that is both close to the linked piece of propaganda, and emotionally charged on its own).
Yeah, that grosses me out enormously. Even though I have no problem with adults choosing a safe-ish life of prostitution... taking that choice away before they are born is nasty.
What's wrong with decerebrate bioroids controlled by implant A.I.s?
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Old 03-12-2012, 02:59 PM   #6
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What's wrong with decerebrate bioroids controlled by implant A.I.s?
Of course, if you're programming the AIs to enjoy that same work, is that any better (or worse)?
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Old 03-12-2012, 03:47 PM   #7
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Default Re: Pro- and counter- Pan-Sapient Rights Memetic Campaigns

Biochauvinism, is what that is.
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Old 03-12-2012, 04:27 PM   #8
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Of course, if you're programming the AIs to enjoy that same work, is that any better (or worse)?
Assuming that computers have emotions for the sake of argument....

It's not the same, because an A.I. does not exist until you define and create it. There is no A.I. in a natural state.
THS does not have the ability to create life forms out of whole cloth without cribbing from already extant genomes.
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Old 03-12-2012, 05:17 PM   #9
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Default Re: Pro- and counter- Pan-Sapient Rights Memetic Campaigns

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It's not the same, because an A.I. does not exist until you define and create it. There is no A.I. in a natural state.
THS does not have the ability to create life forms out of whole cloth without cribbing from already extant genomes.
How are genomes relevant? It is not more morally relevant than the fact that AI programmers probably use an already-existing programming language. It's obviously not tinkering around with genes that is the morally abhorrent part, otherwise GMO crops would be evil. In both cases a sapient being is being created, pretty much the only difference is that one of them is made of meat and the other is not. No already existing beings have been manipulated or had their preferences frustrated.
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Old 03-12-2012, 08:02 PM   #10
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Difference of opinion.
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