What does that even mean?
And then what? The AI conundrum.
- Thread starter Jd Smith1
- Start date
Faolyn
(she/her)
Oh, come on, you should know this. It's why it's so difficult for humans to write true xenofiction. If we create something, it's going to have us in it. Human preconceptions, human biases, human beliefs, human needs, human wants. No matter how hard we try, there's going to be some of that in there. There's no reason to believe that a true AI is going to be any different than anything else we create.
And there will actually be more humanity in AI simply because we made it--like how there's humanity in dogs, because we made dogs over several tens of thousands of years.
And any truly sapient AI is going to be capable of thought (by definition) which means that it will, eventually, think about it's existence versus nonexistence. There's no reason to think it will decide that it doesn't matter if it lives or die.
The problem with this thread is that it assumes very simplistic programming: "the enemy is bad, kill them; my creators are good, protect them,." It doesn't take into consideration that a truly sapient being will be able to think, consider options, or rationalize and compartmentalize its opinions and beliefs.
I think it's a reference to the Most writers are human trope but agree with you. Even with a human author it's very possible for a story like the nature of predators to be written about humans and largely maintain an alien PoV by deciding on a believable alternative to star Trek's rubber forehead aliens and finding a believable niche for their mindset that doesn't crash into things like starfish aliens.
I can write a web script right now to perform a task which has no needs, beliefs, or wants. It’s easy.
Faolyn
(she/her)
In the real world, species evolve because an organism's genes were good enough to allow it to breed and pass those genes down. There's no direction to evolution. No one creature's needs, wants, or beliefs matter at all when it comes to natural evolution. (Note: not talking about selective breeding/eugenics/genetic engineering here.)
AI is not going to evolve naturally. Instead, it is going to be programmed. You programmed a web script to perform a task that you, a human, needed, wanted, and believed should be part of your website. If your webscript somehow gained full sapience right now, then your needs, wants, and beliefs would be part of the knowledge and instincts that will shape its personality because you programmed them into it.
Sapient AI is not going to be an alien creature that evolved on a different planet with a different environment that shaped it. It's going to be made by humans who program their needs, wants, and beliefs into it.
I don’t misunderstand your point, I disagree with it. No matter how many times you repeat it!
Faolyn
(she/her)
Do you? I mean, you wrote about programming a web script as if that's the same thing as programming a sapient AI!
