The movies like Matrix and such scare the shit out me.

-Hrafn

-Mike

You emphasise the negativity of a prevalent ‘fear factor’, which I think is probably the most relevant conclusion to be derived from this poll. It cuts both ways – 73% of people are afraid of something that hasn’t happened yet!

Yeah. It was very interesting to see such an high ‘fear factor’ — everybody’s heard of Terminator, fewer have heard of systems like Poseidon — which have already saved several lives.

@Kaj Sotala

I think it might even go down, actually. People with less knowledge of science are often also more sceptical about it. Especially so when it comes to artificial intelligence – many non-scientific people are essentially dualists who don’t think that any sort of true artificial intelligence will ever be possible. (They might be more open to the dangers of narrow AI, but I doubt that narrow AI will be the first thing to come into the minds of people when you word a question the way you did.)

That’s a good point! Leaves me wondering. Guess the only way to really find out would be to subject more people to this kind of survey.

True. Sufficiently advanced AIs would probably have the capability to solve practically any problem imaginable. Then again, the same intelligence that enables them to do that would also give them the capability to cause problems far worse than anything so far.

So what would prevent them from solving those problems? And what would give them an incentive to create a solution that causes greater problems?

I see your point, in a way, similar to how nuclear power has solved some problems but created greater ones.

But again I bring up the point that speculating that a higher intelligence would create problems without solving them, or not being able to optimize their solutions to cause few other problems — that’s beyond me. Sure, hypothetically it could happen — it’s imaginable — but there’s no way for us to predict the “problem causing” of a higher intelligence. Especially when there’s still so much we don’t know yet about how it will can built and how it’ll function.

Keep in mind that when humans create problems whilst solving others, it’s usually because we didn’t have the mental capacity to anticipate the side effects (or that we did it on purpose, which is usually traceable to our ignorance or choices based on feelings).

An AI destroying all of humanity might solve our currently existing problems, but I’m not sure if I’d like that to happen. I’d much rather take the Friendly ones – but those won’t be developed if nobody fears the possible consequences of AIs. Therefore, I can only hope for more fear.

I’m making the answer to (argument against) this statement a new blog entry. Thanks for the inspiration

By the way, I’m a bit busy these days but I’ll probably post a new reply to the other argument thread soon. Hope this one is enough food-for-thought until then!

@Kuiper
Hah, yeah. We are an exceptionally pessimistic group, Westerners. I think you’re right, a whole new site would probably be needed.

It’s especially noticable in the media. We’re drawn to tales of terror and mistakes, which propels news that cover exactly that. Which in turn incites us to read more …

Can it be mostly traced to the fact that problems are thought provoking, drive societies and give lives meaning? Just look at my comment here — I wrote a lot more in response to something I disagreed with (Kaj’s post) than your point that I completely agreed with. ‘Nuff said?

I think it might even go down, actually. People with less knowledge of science are often also more sceptical about it. Especially so when it comes to artificial intelligence – many non-scientific people are essentially dualists who don’t think that any sort of true artificial intelligence will ever be possible. (They might be more open to the dangers of narrow AI, but I doubt that narrow AI will be the first thing to come into the minds of people when you word a question the way you did.)

As I’ve mentioned before here on Inkblot Earth, I don’t fear AI technologies, I fear the lack of them — we have a lot of problems, and to solve them we need more intelligence:

True. Sufficiently advanced AIs would probably have the capability to solve practically any problem imaginable. Then again, the same intelligence that enables them to do that would also give them the capability to cause problems far worse than anything so far.

An AI destroying all of humanity might solve our currently existing problems, but I’m not sure if I’d like that to happen. I’d much rather take the Friendly ones – but those won’t be developed if nobody fears the possible consequences of AIs. Therefore, I can only hope for more fear.

You emphasise the negativity of a prevalent ‘fear factor’, which I think is probably the most relevant conclusion to be derived from this poll. It cuts both ways – 73% of people are afraid of something that hasn’t happened yet! As you say, it’s almost certain that percentage would rise in a less technologically literate sphere than Digg.

The only way to conquer fear is to address the source of it, directly. It also means taking responsiblity for the actions of humans, individually and in groups.

The technology does not cause fear, people do, in themselves and each other. Education is therefore a key asset in this debate, and this poll has probably helped a lot of people in that respect. Of course, we need a much wider zone of discussion than Digg, but it’s got to start somewhere…

@Sir Jorge
Hello Jorge,

However, get this poll further into the minds of people and they will shift their opinion to being afraid of intelligent machines.

Do you mean that if people were to see these results it would escalate fear, despite all arguments? Or that it would shift the results from fear of humans and to AI? I’m not sure I understand your point.