subconvergence

I think the plan you propose cannot work in any meaningful way. Some of the steps are uncertain, and some depends on the capacity of the given AGI. They can still be argued for convincingly.

However, the current industrial production is very far from being sufficiently automated to allow the AGI to do anything other than shut off when the power runs out after step 14. 

To me, some actual possibilities are:

1. political "enslavement" (taking many possible forms) which would make humans work for the AGI for an arbitrary long period of time (10 years, 100 years, 100 000 years) before disassembly
2. incredible intelligence explosion that would allow the AGI to reach nanobot tech / other

I think both of us made our arguments clear, so instead of answering point by point, let me give a quick holistic response that should summarize what I think, and provide a general interesting point of view on animal cognition.

(Maybe you know about the following, but I think it is interesting enough by itself to be presented here to other people)

Corvidae are very intelligent birds. There's ton of evidence of that. You can read studies that test how they can solve problems, you can watch tons of youtube videos showing them interact with their settings and with other animals. These videos are all made in good faith, showing birds evolving in ecological... (read more)

Thanks for responding, and also for illustrating all the issues I have in your post in a compressed way. Basically, what you're saying is:

1. Something new and exciting is happening
2. There's not a lot of evidence BUT

I think this community should be able to see the issue there. (To also be polemical, occultism was also something that was new and exciting in the 19th century, with many intellectual of their time spending their evening around a turntable, most of them also in good faith when they reported paranormal activity.)

1. is being conditioned on something really happening in 2.

But 2. has a lot of issues and you know it, and I think you do a... (read 479 more words →)

The fact that this post was curated, and raised so little concern in the comments is worrying.

The author expresses himself maniacally in a mix of meme-speak and LW-lingo. The main claim is never really clarified*, but is presented as if it were, and in an outrageous way. There is no evidence besides YouTube videos**. I have no idea what is going on, and don’t even know where to start.

Comparative cognition is a real scientific field. If you’re interested in the cognitive abilities of non-human animals, and how they compare with the abilities of other species, then there’s a whole scientific literature you can take a look at. Ironically, this post sends us... (read more)