Trusting in a vastly superior intelligence?

[Loppan Torkel]

If a superior intelligence would appear in the Cloud - one that would explain how to make fusion power available, how to reach the stars, heal the sick and overall make the world a better place - would you trust it? It would be impossible to test the theories through calculations, you either trust it or you don't, but fusion power and several diseases were solved due to this intelligence. ..in this scenario.

 

[El_Machinae]

Trust it to what?

 

[Loppan Torkel]

How to build a society. What progress is. How to move forward and reach other planets. Etc. It has solutions to most things. It solves most scientific issues you can think of. Some people don't trust it, some do. As usual with these things.


Edit. It also gives you a very personal 'horoscope' that if you follow the entity's advice, you'll be fortunate throughout the day. It kind of know what's best for you.

 

[Cutlass]

I just reads this book. In it, the Gurus show up, start sharing their advanced technology, get the world economy switched around and dependent on them.

And then they want something.....

 

[bhavv]

^^

The advanced life forms show up, give you all their amazing tech, and humans and earth become amazing.

Only then does the advanced lifeform demand payment - thousands upon thousands of juicy succulent human babies for them to eat. Failure to comply means they destroy Earth with their vastly advanced military technology, which they conveniently didn't share with us.

The entire thing was a hoax to get Earth producing more food for the aliens, in the form of human babies.

 

[CavLancer]

Maybe they just want to be generous with our peaceful, loving, profoundly spiritual civilization.

Edit: On second thought ya, they want to eat babies.

 

[cybrxkhan]

To serve man...

 

[Darkflight]

What difference would it make considering their technological superiority? I wouldn't be able to prevent them from doing anything anyway.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Would humanity follow the guidance of a superior intelligence? For a clue, consider what usually happens when an individual of superior intelligence offers guidance to an individual of lesser intelligence.

 

[Phrossack]

Never trust anyone outside of your kith or kin who has far more power than you.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Never trust anyone outside of your kith or kin who has far more power than you.

Fixed.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

If we're talking about like a post-singularity AI, I'd be inclined towards distrusting it, but would still want to make use of the answers it can give us. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer", right?

If we're talking about an alien race, who cares, anyone advanced enough to figure out FTL travel can just take what they want from us regardless of anything we might try to do to stop it, so trust and distrust aren't really applicable. If they appeared friendly, we'd have no choice but to believe them, because if they were really hostile towards us they could just bombard us from orbit. Make nice and hope they don't crush us under their boot heels would be the order of the day.

 

[Kozmos]

The only thing I would trust is a Machine. (provided it is objective-oriented) Humans are too stupid to manage their own affairs.

 

[Gucumatz]

To serve man...

My thoughts exactly. Although I do hope if God shows himself to more people it isn't to try out a new twilight zone recipe

 

[tetley]

Is the gist of this that this is less hypothetical a question than you are letting on? It's not much of a stretch from here to say the universe requires an Intelligent Creator, and should we trust that.

 

[Kyriakos]

If a superior intelligence would appear in the Cloud - one that would explain how to make fusion power available, how to reach the stars, heal the sick and overall make the world a better place - would you trust it? It would be impossible to test the theories through calculations, you either trust it or you don't, but fusion power and several diseases were solved due to this intelligence. ..in this scenario.

Isn't this a variation of the 'great inquisitor' chapter/story? (Dostoevsky).

There, basically, Jesus himself returns to earth, and at first people flock to him because he works some miracles, but then a great inquisitor disperses them, for as much as they may wish to be close to one they believe to be a god, they wish even more to still have bread to eat, and fear the authorities as well.

*

I think that we have relegated ourselves to a slave-species if we hope for gods or super-intelligent aliens to arrive to help us. We should first try to rid ourselves from the super-misanthropic humans we have (or any reptilians in the mix as well).

 

[bhavv]

Noooo tetley, BAD TETLY!!!!

Dont turn this into Intelligent Design QQ.

 

[Borachio]

Would humanity follow the guidance of a superior intelligence? For a clue, consider what usually happens when an individual of superior intelligence offers guidance to an individual of lesser intelligence.

It depends on how superior. A slightly superior intelligence wouldn't know enough in order to guide the lesser correctly, maybe. But surely a vastly, or sufficiently, superior one would?

What usually happens when an individual of lesser intelligence offers guidance to an individual of superior intelligence?

 

[gay_Aleks]

Why would a vastly superior intelligence trust us, anyway? If they can see the things happening on Earth, I'm sure they'd rather say "Well, you know what? Screw this, fire the Death Star!".

 

[El_Machinae]

I guess I likely would. It's basically the same reason I read Borachio's posts.