I think we're already getting to a stage where the basic artificial intelligences are discovering moral systems. I think, in many ways, moral systems are simply things that we have programmed into ourselves, either through childhood or just through genetic, ingrained ideas. So the same thing applies when you talk about machines.
Zoltan IstvanI think whatever nation or whoever develops one artificial intelligence will probably make it so that artificial intelligence always stays ahead of any other developing artificial intelligence at any other point in time. It might even do things like send viruses to a second artificial intelligence, just so it can wipe it out, to protect its grounds. It's gonna be very similar to national politics.
Zoltan IstvanTranshumanism literally means "beyond human." It's using science and technology to radically change and improve the human species and experience.
Zoltan IstvanFrederick Nietzsche was important to me, in teaching that it's okay to strive to improve the human being.
Zoltan IstvanMaybe we want to keep A.I. to the level of a 16-year-old or a 17-year-old adolescent, rather than some fully maxed-out artificial intelligence that becomes 10,000 times smarter than us in just a matter of years. Who knows what could happen? It could be a very dangerous scenario.
Zoltan IstvanIf there is any person that I do follow somewhat closely, at least ideas I like, it's been Frederich Nietzsche, but he's been dead a few hundred years. And at the same time, I wouldn't say that I actually, from a political standpoint, like many of his ideas. It just happened to be the core of a lot of my own beliefs of trying to modify my body and live indefinitely. What really applies is an evolutionary instinct to become a better entity altogether.
Zoltan Istvan