Jame5

Sure it does. Science is all about The Truth ™. But what about fitness? Yes, I mean Darwinian fitness as in ‘survival of the fittest’. According to my friendly AI theory (2007/11/09 UPDATE: latest version here), that is good which increases fitness. In that sense knowledge of truth is good if and only if said knowledge increases fitness. Is there a set of false believes – as in scientifically unjustifiable believes – that if held by an individual would increase said individual’s fitness? Yes there is: religion.

Sorry folks – there is no way to prove or disprove neither the existence nor the absence of a God. But that’s why it is called a religious believe and not a religious truth – right? Richard Dawkins, Dan Dennet and Sam Harris have written book after book in defense of The Truth and science versus the misguided belief in religion.

Most popular counter beliefs aimed at ridiculing religion are the Pastafarian belief in a flying spaghetti monster and the more sophisticated Celestial Teapot by Bertrand Russell.

It stands to argue however that the belief in an undetectable monster or a celestial teapot on the one hand does not add to an individual’s fitness while the belief in Christianity, Islam or the Jewish faith on the other hand does. Religions increase an individual’s fitness by allowing for the development of groups larger then what can be evolutionary stable by sheer face to face monitoring by creating internalized restraints in their followers and thereby increasing the likelihood of sticking to a shared moral code.

For an in depth explanation I suggest reading Selection of Organization at the Social level: obstacles and facilitators of metasystem transitions. Particularly chapter four: Social Control Mechanisms.

The sentence ‘No Good without God’ becoming true in the sense of religion increasing fitness must burn like chili sauce on the eye lids of intelligent designers and religion bashing Darwinists alike. Oh the sweet irony!

Other examples of false beliefs increasing an individual’s fitness include the optimism bias for example.

Time out! Reality Check: Is the truth bad? Or are some truths good while others are evil? Far from it… The solution lies in the big picture. The truth is not that there is no God but that internalized restraints improve how well humans function as part of large groups. The truth is not that Joe average is less likely to succeed as he thinks but that those that try may loose but those that don’t have lost already.

These truths just happened to have manifested themselves in the course of genetic and memetic evolution in phenotypes that don’t make them immediately deducible from said phenotypes. So before you argue for the abolishment of religion please design a set of implementable internalized restrains that are at least as efficient and effective.

Or more generally put: before you argue for the truth make sure it is not just the debunking of a false belief without replacing the false belief with something that is not at least as effective and efficient at increasing an individual’s and/or a group’s fitness respectively.

Having read my book or the corresponding paper (2007/11/09 UPDATE: latest version here) you will know how I see believe control as the most effective way of manipulation. Well – seems that at least one cartoonist agrees with me. Look what I found on reddit this morning:

“The people must believe that they are not being manipulated in order for them to be manipulated effectively.”

However I would like to add that a conscious manipulator as depicted in the image is far less effective than someone who does not even perceive him or herself as being a self serving manipulator in the framework of whatever internal rationalization there might exist.

I would argue that an extraordinary ability for manipulating others paired with self deception in combination with a set of misguided personal believes has cause more suffering in the world than anything else. For those are the false prophets that can rally the masses for war – and for the wrong reasons at that.

Remember – you are not lying when you believe it to be true.

The internet is a great place to find information. Lots of pages to browse, millions of papers to read but the best way to go right at the heart of where those closest to the subject exchange ideas is right at the source: forums and discussion lists.

Granted – the signal to noise ratio is not always were you want it to be and one will have to sift through a lot of shaff before getting some real good wheat – but that’s a little price to pay for being in the center of it all. Welcome to the trenches:

• AGIRI.org Discussion Lists
• Immortality Institute
• SL4 Mailing List
• World Transhumanist Association Discussion List

Don’t come back crying and say I did not warn you… No really – its good stuff. Lot’s of brilliant people out there.

Jame5 it not just a science fiction novel – it is a science fiction novel with a cause. Ensuring the creation of a friendly AI is hard for many reasons:

• Creating an AGI is hard
• Goal retention is hard
• Recursive self improvement is hard

The question what friendliness means however existed before all of those problems, is a separate one and needs to be answered before the creation of a friendly AI can be attempted. Coherent Extrapolated Volition in short CEV is Eliezer S. Yudkowsky’s take on Friendliness.

While CEV is great to describe what a friendly AIG will do, my critique of CEV is that it postpones answering the question of what friendliness is specifically until after we have an AIG that will answer that question for us.

Yes – a successfully implemented friendly AGI will do ‘good’ stuff and act in our ‘best interest’. But what is good and what is our best interest? In Jame5 I provide a different solution to the friendliness issue and suggest to skip right to the end of chapter 9 for anyone who would like to get right to the meat.

In addition I have summarized my core friendliness concepts in a paper called ‘Benevolence – a Materialist Philosophy of Goodness‘ (2007/11/09 UPDATE: latest version here) and in the end formulate the following friendly AGI supergoal:

Definitions:

• Suffering: negative subjective experience equivalent to the subjective departure from an individual’s model of optimal fitness state as encoded in its genome/memome
• Growth: absolute increase in individual’s fitness
• Joy: positive subjective experience equivalent to the subjective contribution to moving closer towards an individual’s model of optimal fitness state as encoded in its genome/memome

Derived friendly AGI super goal: “Minimize all involuntary human suffering, direct all
unavoidable suffering towards growth, and reward all voluntary suffering contributing
to an individual’s growth with an equal or greater amount of joy.”

Get it while it is hot! It is an A4 PDF (111 pages, 1.4 MB). The PDF itself is free as in speech but a meatspace version is in the making and shall be available in the next 2 weeks or so and will be announced here.

Some testimonials after the jump.

“Jame5 is an engaging story about our confrontation with the singularity. From virtual worlds to AI gods, it provides a poignant and sometimes chilling exploration of the future and what it means to be human. A fascinating read.” Dr. Stephen Omohundro – President of Self-Aware Systems and Advisor to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence

„Of the several hundred science fiction books I have read so far Jame5 is one of the good ones. Its new ideas gave inspiration for thought and I had fun reading it.” Michael Adling – micenterprise.de

“If you enjoy intelligent fiction with more than a mere pinch of philosophy, this book is for you. Applies the idea of ‘survival of the fittest’ to a singularity scenario and challenges your perception of what is real, what is right, what is possible – and what is not. An alluring glimpse into the future of mankind!” Monika Siegenthaler

“If you are what you remember then couldn’t your past have just been a dream? Read at your own risk – Jame5 may dislocate your mind!” Olive Huang Hai – youtube.com/Katzen2002

„Answering the essential question of what the meaning of life might be has occupied us since the existence of human consciousness. Jame5 explores this as well as other questions and opens new perspectives that keep the reader thinking long after having closed the book.” Sonja Costabel