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sideways t1_iv9q2w9 wrote

I think that AGI is the only viable path out of the deep ecological hole we, as a species, have dug for ourselves.

Of course, it's possible that a sudden acceleration in collapse derails the Singularity and modern civilization with it. Given that, I think we'll just barely make it.

Advances like AlphaFold, AlphaTensor and AI fusion plasma control are just the beginning. We're starting to grasp dramatically more effective scientific and technological tools that will enable us to solve currently intractable problems.

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apple_achia OP t1_iv9yjiz wrote

So as to how AGI will solve the climate crisis: we already know the problem is fossil fuel consumption and excessive resource extraction. This is the human activity in question Are you suggesting that AGI would coordinate human economic activity to prevent climate change in some way? Perhaps a way that would limit resource consumption to a sustainable level and assure a relatively equitable distribution of wealth and agency?

It may be able to figure out a technical fix to a few problems, like perhaps fossil fuels are eliminated by nuclear fusion, but then we have waste storage to deal with, as well as agricultural land coordination and management. And if that’s solved, population growth may become so explosive that becomes a problem. And then you cant necessarily solve that with new technology, until we can terraform space, we’d have to make some difficult decisions.

If this is the case, how would this AGI coerce the non cooperative or police it’s boundaries, if someone were to go and try and open an extra oil drill too many, or clear cut a vital piece of forest? Strike out on their own in some unacceptable way.

Would AGI then, have a monopoly on force/ coercion as well as economic boundaries and therefore amount to the AGI acting as a state?

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sideways t1_iva1pv5 wrote

It's important to recognize that, as AGI enables other disruptive technologies, nobody can really predict how things are going to work out. That's kind of the premise of the Singularity.

An AGI somehow figuring out post-scarcity economics and genuine democracy certainly could come to pass - but I expect it would have to be an ASI and I'm not smart enough to suggest how it would work.

In the near term I'd expect AGI to facilitate more technical solutions like large scale carbon capture, advanced materials science for batteries and renewables and dramatically better and cleaner energy sources. Advances like these could solve the issues you brought up without requiring full-scale economic/social restructuring.

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TheLastSamurai t1_ivbilcb wrote

It could also do something like Make solar 1000 more efficient or create synergetic algae to capture carbon, a lot of possibilities but I wouldn’t pin our plans on it, it’s not a given

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EscapeVelocity83 t1_ivcjdcw wrote

An ago figuring it out is not different from anyone else. The people in power don't want those solutions because then they wouldn't be in power

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RikerT_USS_Lolipop t1_ivc8iea wrote

> like perhaps fossil fuels are eliminated by nuclear fusion, but then we have waste storage to deal with,

You need to learn about nuclear energy waste.

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mootcat t1_ivez45m wrote

IMHO humanity will not be able to maintain anything close to its current levels of control over global mechanisms if we are to have any shot at surviving what is to come.

A major improvement would simply be a singular focused intelligence determining things like resource allocation, controlling weapons of mass destruction and preventing the abuse of positions of power.

If we carry the same methodologies and power structures into an AGI assisted future, we will find utter destruction even faster, or dystopia beyond anything we can imagine.

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mootcat t1_iveykee wrote

Indeed. This is the conclusion I reached about a year ago and it has only been further cemented the more I've learned about global threats and the scaling of AI.

It comes down to a race to evolve ourselves beyond our current limitations via AI or fall victim to our genetic proclivities and the innumerable repercussions that are coming home to roost as a result of them.

2050 is a very late estimate for collapse at this point. 2040 is a solid bet from many perspectives, and honestly I think we'd be lucky to enter the 2030s with anything remotely resembling the globalized society we've taken for granted over the last several decades.

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