Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

It's an interesting time when the bar has moved to "It’s not like diplomacy and war will end". But that is on the table. Nuclear weapons caused the end of wars as we know them. Great powers no longer directly attack each other. And AI is much more powerful than nuclear weapons, with an equal capacity for damage and a much greater capacity for good.

By the way, I donate monthly to GiveWell and the shrimp welfare project. Do you donate monthly to starving people? Most people don't, and the reason is simple: at the end of the day, most people just don't care that much about helping a starving person far away. They also don't care much about things like that, animals in factory farms, or earthquakes that kill hundreds of thousands. But ideally, we could find a way to empower people such that the minority who do care can make a big difference.



How is AI "more powerful than nuclear weapons" etc when they're two completely different things? Please explain to me how AI can glass the planet via mutually assured destruction.


Someone who would not otherwise be able to asks AI for simple instructions for how to make a deadly virus, which then spreads rapidly and kills most of those it infects


Yikes


this comment will be killed, i find it an apt response to the idea that enabling those who believe themselves to be good is more important than reducing wanton suffering


> enabling those who believe themselves to be good is more important than reducing wanton suffering

I'm genuinely not sure if you're referring to my comment or the one I responded to haha


i read your article you posted here. in that article you state that you support live and let live. most people who support live and let live either havent been raped by life yet, or have chosen to double down post-rape. the latter is respectable, still im not currently interested in a discussion involving the influence of such a perspective. out of good faith i highlight that i responded to:

> ideally, we could find a way to empower people such that the minority who do care can make a big difference

is it a coincidence, that in your ideal world, you would be empowered, because you care, as evidenced by your testimony of things you do that make you think you care? in my ideal world, wanton suffering would be minimized, regardless as to the path it took to get there; requiring 1 specific path involving people who think they are good, demarcates our ideals.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: