The Metaphysical Dangers of Artificial Intelligence [Requested Video]
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
104.72152
Summary
The Metaphysical Problem with A.I. and Artificial Intelligence. This is a request from Jeff, who wants me to expand upon my worries about the problems I see with artificial intelligence, especially over the next few decades. And to do that, we need to talk about the metaphysics of the soul, and what it means to perceive reality.
Transcript
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The Metaphysical Problem with Artificial Intelligence
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This is a requested video. It comes from Jeff, and he wanted me to expand upon my worries,
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the problems I see with artificial intelligence, especially over the next few decades.
00:00:20.760
And see, I think the problem is only partially realized by most science fiction,
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by something like The Matrix, where the robots decide to take over,
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but the robots are, foundationally, they are human.
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They are like us, even if they are very unlike us.
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And I'd like to present something a bit more existentially terrifying.
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And to do that, we need to talk about the metaphysics of the soul,
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So I'd like to start off with a question that's going to seem completely unrelated at first.
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How do we know, how can you and I say for certain that we are not Chris Chan?
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Not literally Chris Chan, of course, but how can we say for certain that we are not as deluded as Chris Chan is?
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which itself is a study in Be Careful When You Battle Monsters Lest You Become That Which You Battle.
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That in one of his comics, Chris Chan was making fun of obese people.
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And they started speculating, based upon that and a few other things,
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that Chris actually has a great deal of difficulty visually perceiving reality.
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Chris Chan spent a very long time studying himself in the mirror,
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And so in his mind's eye, he is still the skinny teenager,
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and not the walking abomination, which he has, in fact, become.
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But he cannot process the visual information correctly.
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It's one of those questions that can really keep you up at night.
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if you're asking yourself whether or not you're insane,
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But I would say even though we can never be 100% certain on that,
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we can never be 100% certain that our perception of reality,
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We can constantly reach out to the world around us
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And if I can accurately observe objective reality,
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that means that I can improve upon that observation.
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And so by constantly doing these objective perceptions,
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and saying, okay, okay, what do I know for certain?
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but if you've been paying attention in your life,