My random thoughts

[funkervogt]

The lack of drones dates the movie District 9.

[funkervogt]

In the future, if you have a low social credit rating and are likelier to trash the inside of an autonomous taxi, the only taxis that will let you in will be those with hard seats and vinyl floors that can be sprayed down and thick windows that can't be broken. Public buses already have the first two features.

[funkervogt]

Once asteroid mining techniques become more advanced, the first step in the process will involve enclosing an asteroid in something like a mini Dyson Sphere. The Sphere's subcomponents would be satellite "panels" shaped like flat, equilateral triangles or flat hexagons. They would join with each other along their edges to encircle and enclose the asteroid.

Then, other machines with drills, explosive charges, and other types of devices would arrive and would be able to enter the Sphere thanks to one of the panels swiveling open like a big door. They would get to work breaking down the rock. The Sphere would keep any debris from escaping into space, which would not only reduce industrial waste, but also keep our Solar System from being cluttered with even more objects that could be collision hazards for other space ships. This process would resemble an amoeba engulfing a food particle and then digesting it.

When a load of processed metal was ready, the "door" would open again, allowing it to exit the Sphere and to meet a waiting cargo ship. Once the whole asteroid had been consumed, the Sphere would disassemble back into its satellite components, which would drift to their next destination(s) to help break down more asteroids.

[funkervogt]

Androids will be so fast, agile and observant that they'll be able to dodge, deflect or catch any objects you throw at them.

[funkervogt]

Shutting down an AGI wouldn't be the same as "murder" if it were possible to reactivate the AGI, with no memory loss. From the AGI's perspective, the shutdown period would seem like a period of dreamless sleep.

If reversibly shutting down an AGI were a crime, it would most closely parallel knocking a human unconscious.

[funkervogt]

"Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage: for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.“

-Spinoza

This implies that AGIs should, thanks to their lack of emotions, have more free will than humans.

[wjfox]

Androids will be so fast, agile and observant that they'll be able to dodge, deflect or catch any objects you throw at them.

What if you threw a cluster of multiple objects? Possibly some of unknown function/risk. How would they decide which to avoid or catch?

[funkervogt]

Then you would have some chance of hitting one of them, but remember your own accuracy will drop as the number of objects you throw increases.

[funkervogt]

Imagine if AI started mass murdering humans, but to copy our souls to an afterlife.

[ººº]

Imagine if AI started mass murdering humans, but to copy our souls to an afterlife.

That's a good plot, I wonder if there is a work based on it.

[funkervogt]

The AIs would conclude that humankind's interests were best served by sending us to a much better afterlife.

[Vakanai]

In the future, if you have a low social credit rating and are likelier to trash the inside of an autonomous taxi, the only taxis that will let you in will be those with hard seats and vinyl floors that can be sprayed down and thick windows that can't be broken. Public buses already have the first two features.

I'm hoping that this future doesn't come to pass. I'm staunchly opposed to social credit systems, as it's ripe for abuse by those in power who get to decide what is socially good or bad - see China's social credit system (hint, those who openly disagree with the party or Xi Jinping have very low scores).

A better system is just having companies blacklist the individual from using their services. Same end result, but without the possibility of having your life made harder because your political views are in opposition to those in power.

[funkervogt]

Within 20 years, it will be possible to build highly accurate digital copies of people that talk, act, and think just like them (this isn't the same as a mind upload). I think the process of creating a copy will involve continuous observation of the human as they go about their daily routines, plus a battery of written tests and interviews conducted by advanced chatbots. The most fun and interesting element of the process will be following the machine's instructions to go into unusual situations so it can see how the person behaves.

"You've never gone to a rap battle, so go and let me record what you do."

"Now that you're there, get up on stage and participate."

"Get drunk at a gay bar."

[funkervogt]

In the future, if you have a low social credit rating and are likelier to trash the inside of an autonomous taxi, the only taxis that will let you in will be those with hard seats and vinyl floors that can be sprayed down and thick windows that can't be broken. Public buses already have the first two features.

I'm hoping that this future doesn't come to pass. I'm staunchly opposed to social credit systems, as it's ripe for abuse by those in power who get to decide what is socially good or bad - see China's social credit system (hint, those who openly disagree with the party or Xi Jinping have very low scores).

A better system is just having companies blacklist the individual from using their services. Same end result, but without the possibility of having your life made harder because your political views are in opposition to those in power.

I don't see how it would be different from casinos banning customers who were caught cheating.

[Vakanai]

In the future, if you have a low social credit rating and are likelier to trash the inside of an autonomous taxi, the only taxis that will let you in will be those with hard seats and vinyl floors that can be sprayed down and thick windows that can't be broken. Public buses already have the first two features.

I'm hoping that this future doesn't come to pass. I'm staunchly opposed to social credit systems, as it's ripe for abuse by those in power who get to decide what is socially good or bad - see China's social credit system (hint, those who openly disagree with the party or Xi Jinping have very low scores).

A better system is just having companies blacklist the individual from using their services. Same end result, but without the possibility of having your life made harder because your political views are in opposition to those in power.

I don't see how it would be different from casinos banning customers who were caught cheating.

Your example is more in line exactly with what I'm suggesting - a casino banning gamblers they've caught cheating is just like a robotaxi business banning users who break their rules and terms of service. Neither are social credit programs, where people are rewarded or penalized not by companies who are fully in their rights to withhold services from people who violate certain rules, like if someone streaks at a fast food restaurant and is subsequently banned from from that chain, but more like what China has now, where being a known supporter of the Hong Kong protesters or Taiwan's right to be it's own self governing country can negatively impact your chance at getting a loan or having to pay more for services. That is a social credit system, and it's quite dystopian in an Orwellian fashion. For example depending on who's in power in the USA, if we had a social credit system I might suffer more unduly for being a known liberal who supports LGBTQ rights. This distinction between companies having the right to refuse service and social credit is an important and fundamental difference to make. Companies and corporations have rights too, our capitalist system would fall apart in the week if they didn't, and that's fine. But social credit is just too easily used as a tool by authoritarian regimes to keep their populace in line and in check, and no one who values freedom should be in support of the idea.

Of course it doesn't have to be like that, social credit does have the capability to be used as a tool for the greater good in the world - but frankly it requires a government so noble and free from corruption that it just doesn't exist. The threat of misuse and abuse of such systems like in China's current example is just too great for the potential rewards which can be pursued by other means.

[funkervogt]

Imagine a future where all humans have brain implants allowing us to share thoughts and feelings. Forced empathy would keep people from hurting each other, and forcible mind scans would become possible.

[ººº]

Imagine a future where all humans have brain implants allowing us to share thoughts and feelings. Forced empathy would keep people from hurting each other, and forcible mind scans would become possible.

https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/464cec79c393a

[funkervogt]

In the same way that The Borg ignored intruders on their space ships so long as they weren't threats, a hostile AGI will focus its resources on defeating the most threatening humans, while ignoring the others, at least until the first group was destroyed. Imagine the Global South watching, basically helpless but also unscathed, as the U.S., Europe, Russia, China, and Japan fight against something like Skynet. Though they weren't under attack, the people of the Global South would know their own long-term fate was being sealed by the conflict happening thousands of miles away.

[funkervogt]

These beautiful, expensive wood species will someday be common thanks to genetic engineering for hardiness, and later, to the rise of lab-grown wood.
https://ligno.com.ua/en/news/33_the-mos ... -wood.html

For the same reason, illegal logging in poor countries will end thanks to a lack of demand.

[funkervogt]

In the posthuman era, will toxic materials like asbestos and lead paint become widespread again, since posthumans and robots won't be hurt by them?