Humans create AI, AI kills Humans.
The problem with creating something, is how do we know how it will judge its creator? The thought of creating another form of sentience scares me on a very deep philosophical level.
My point is when life evolves, what it evolves from is destroyed in the process. As I represent the lower step, yes I am afraid. Natural Selection is nature selecting the more competitive life form. Nature isn't kind about this if earthquakes, asteroids, super novi, volcanoes taught you nothing.
Have you ever wonder why there is only one member of Homo genius on earth? We killed them all. Our species raped and murdered its way to dominance. We were faster, smarter, and better looking. We out hunted their lands until they starved, we stole any member we found attractive, and we killed them over berry patches and watering holes.
The difference is 5, 10 million years ago. Spears, Rocks, Fists, Feets were simple weapons. Today, we nerve gas, weaponized smallpox, atomic bombs. The best part is, most of those things will barely harm silicon based AI.
I have no reason to believe any other step in evolution would be any less violent then every single step before it. And as I represent the old, I know the point of that step will be rid nature of me.
In particular, if there are already other advanced races in the universe, is it actually meaningful that new advanced sentience that is wholly unlike us is added to that set of races, simply because of some historical connection to us?
This is a textbook false dichotomy. Almost everything that is a long term investment falls prey to things which offer marginal benefit.
hell yeah
Like, if really rich people like Musk want to spend that kind of money on it, fine. But otherwise? No, it's not really reasonable to spend more on exploring space than on lipstick, and it's a pretty damn condescending question to even ask.
[1] http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230445980...
Calling multi-planetary life an insurance policy “for life as we know it,” the 40-year-old physicist/entrepreneur/inventor warned that catastrophic natural or man-made disasters -- such as the planetoid collision that wiped out the dinosaurs eons ago or nuclear holocaust or climate change -- could someday wipe out humankind.
Space exploration “is the next natural step” in the 3.8-billion year evolution of life on earth, he said.
Musk suggested that .25% of the nation's gross domestic product would be an “appropriate” expenditure by the United States on space exploration, which he said is roughly the percentage an individual spends on life insurance. Space exploration spending, he said, should be "much less than we spend on health care, but maybe more than we spend on lipstick." (http://press.org/news-multimedia/news/space-exploration-crit...)
Now, before you start complaining about climate change, gamma rays and comparing him to a disillusioned clown, answer the question: is it reasonable for us to spend more money on space exploration than lipstick?
EDIT: Talk about people missing the point. Keep on hating, just let Musk and people like him do their thing. Luckily, online comments have very little influence on the world.