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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI aftermath scenarios | 2/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_aftermath_scenarios | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T16:30:58.334202+00:00 | kb-cron |
Imagine running on a treadmill at a steep incline — heart pounding, muscles aching, lungs gasping for air. A glance at the timer: your next break, which will also be your death, is due in 49 years, 3 months, 20 days, 4 hours, 56 minutes, and 12 seconds. You wish you had not been born.
=== Communism === Ray Kurzweil posits that the goals of communism will be realized by advanced technological developments in the 21st century, where the intersection of low manufacturing costs, material abundance, and open-source design philosophies in software and in hardware will enable the realization of the maxim "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". This technological path to communist ideals differs fundamentally from traditional Marxist approaches that emphasize class struggle and political revolution. Instead, Kurzweil's vision suggests that advanced AI and automation could eliminate scarcity naturally, making the means of production so abundant and accessible that traditional concepts of private ownership become irrelevant. In such scenarios, artificial general intelligence could manage resource distribution and production planning more efficiently than market mechanisms or centralized planning, potentially resolving the economic calculation problem that has historically challenged socialist economies. The combination of AI-driven automation, 3D printing, and open-source design could theoretically enable individuals to access goods and services without traditional monetary exchange. However, this technological approach to communist goals faces several challenges. The transition period could create new forms of inequality between those who control AI systems and those who do not. Additionally, questions remain about how to ensure equitable access to advanced technologies and prevent the concentration of AI capabilities among a small elite, which could lead to new forms of class division rather than the classless society envisioned by communist theory.
=== Benevolent dictator ===
In this scenario, postulate that a superintelligent artificial intelligence takes control of society, but acts in a beneficial way. Its programmers, despite being on a deadline, solved quasi-philosophical problems that had seemed to some intractable, and created an AI with the following goal: to use its superintelligence to figure out what human utopia looks like by analyzing human behavior, human brains, and human genes; and then, to implement that utopia. The AI arrives at a subtle and complex definition of human flourishing. Valuing diversity, and recognizing that different people have different preferences, the AI divides Earth into different sectors. Harming others, making weapons, evading surveillance, or trying to create a rival superintelligence are globally banned; apart from that, each sector is free to make its own laws; for example, a religious person might choose to live in the "pious sector" corresponding to his religion, where the appropriate religious rules are strictly enforced. In all sectors, disease, poverty, crime, hangovers, addiction, and all other involuntary suffering have been eliminated. Many sectors boast advanced architecture and spectacle that "make typical sci-fi visions pale in comparison". Life is an "all-inclusive pleasure cruise", as if it were "Christmas 365 days a year".
After spending an intense week in the knowledge sector learning about the ultimate laws of physics that the AI has discovered, you might decide to cut loose in the hedonistic sector over the weekend and then relax for a few days at the beach resort in the wildlife sector. Still, many people are dissatisfied, Tegmark writes. Humans have no freedom in shaping their collective destiny. Some want the freedom to have as many children as they want. Others resent surveillance by the AI, or chafe at bans on weaponry and on creating further superintelligence machines. Others may come to regret the choices they have made, or find their lives feel hollow and superficial. Bostrom argues that an AI's code of ethics should ideally improve in certain ways on current norms of moral behavior, in the same way that we regard current morality to be superior to the morality of earlier eras of slavery. In contrast, Ernest Davis of New York University this approach is too dangerous, stating "I feel safer in the hands of a superintelligence who is guided by 2014 morality, or for that matter by 1700 morality, than in the hands of one that decides to consider the question for itself."
=== Gatekeeper AI === In "Gatekeeper" AI scenarios, the AI can act to prevent rival superintelligences from being created, but otherwise errs on the side of allowing humans to create their own destiny. Ben Goertzel of OpenCog has advocated a "Nanny AI" scenario where the AI additionally takes some responsibility for preventing humans from destroying themselves, for example by slowing down technological progress to give time for society to advance in a more thoughtful and deliberate manner. In a third scenario, a superintelligent "Protector" AI gives humans the illusion of control, by hiding or erasing all knowledge of its existence, but works behind the scenes to guarantee positive outcomes. In all three scenarios, while humanity gains more control (or at least the illusion of control), humanity ends up progressing more slowly than it would if the AI were unrestricted in its willingness to rain down all the benefits and unintended consequences of its advanced technology on the human race.
=== Boxed AI ===
People ask what is the relationship between humans and machines, and my answer is that it's very obvious: Machines are our slaves. The AI box scenario postulates that a superintelligent AI can be "confined to a box" and its actions can be restricted by human gatekeepers; the humans in charge would try to take advantage of some of the AI's scientific breakthroughs or reasoning abilities, without allowing the AI to take over the world. Successful gatekeeping may be difficult; the more intelligent the AI is, the more likely the AI can find a clever way to use "social hacking" and convince the gatekeepers to let it escape, or even to find an unforeseen physical method of escape.