Re: "Coping with Future Catastrophes" conference: suggestions
Hi Jeffrey,
I'll send you an update on my AGI project (which is going reasonably well) sometime soon, but what occasioned this email was reading the press release for your upcoming meeting on global risks in Dubai:
http://www.pr.com/press-release/403599
This topic interests me a lot as you probably know ... attached find an almost-final version of a paper on how to mitigate the potential risks of advanced AGI systems, which is going to be published shortly in the Journal of Evolution and Technology.
So if you see fit, it would be great for you to reserve a slot for me at the Dubai meeting. ;-)
Also, I have some other suggestions for you...
You might want to consider inviting Steve Omohundro, who has written some pretty insightful stuff about the potential existential risks posed by AGI.... His paper on Basic AI Drives is a good one
http://selfawaresystems.com/2007/11/30/paper-on-the-basic-ai-drives/
and I suspect it will appeal to you. Steve and I gave talks together with Larry Krauss (whom it seems you know) at the Singularity Summit Australia last year...
There're also the Singularity Institute for AI guys, who are obsessed
with the topic of AGI and existential risk. Some of the SIAI guys
are too kooky for my taste; but Luke Muelhauser, their director, is
reasonably solid..
http://singinst.org/aboutus/team
Another very obvious suggestion is Nick Bostrom, who coined the term
"existential risks", and heads the Future of Humanity Institute at
Oxford. We're actually having our AGI 2012 conference at Oxford, and
alongside the technical AGI presentations we'll have some discussions
with Nick and his Oxford philosophy team on AGI-related "future
catastrophe" stuff.
Finally Paul Werbos
is a brilliant cross-disciplinary scientist who knows a hell of a lot
about the risks facing humanity on all levels, due to his position
with the NSF. He's a rare case of a guy who's a broad-minded, wildly
imaginative thinker and ALSO very tight w/ US government science,
engineering, military, intelligence, etc.
These folks all represent a community that has thought about, and
discussed, the "future catastrophes" issue quite a lot, and probably
would have a lot to add to your Future Catastrophes conference.
And as I said, more on the AGI work a little later ;)
thanks much
Ben
--
Ben Goertzel, PhD
http://goertzel.org
"My humanity is a constant self-overcoming" -- Friedrich Nietzsche
Hah cool, thanks for the quick reply ;)
BTW, I'm spending most of my time in Hong Kong now, where my little AGI team is located. But I'll be back in the US for the end of May and all of June, so if you have time maybe we can briefly get together then so I can update you on progress toward AGI. Anyway I'll ping you closer to that time to see if you may be available...
ben
Ok
Sorry for all the typos .Sent from my iPhone