Hacker News Reader

The Skynet scenario seems farfetched because we're very far off from that kind of AI.

But on the chance that some day we do reach that level of advancement, even if it's 100 or 500 years, can't hurt to prepare, right? Better to waste time preparing unnecessarily than to face destruction from improper planning.

View on HN

Yes, it can definitely hurt to prepare, if you're wasting resources.

Try proposing that we prepare for an alien invasion, and you'll be laughed out of the room.

The difference is we know we will eventually achieve AGI while we have absolutely zero reason to expect an alien invasion.

Not at all. We have good reason to believe we will eventually make contact with an alien species. How do you know we will eventually achieve AGI? We humans are evidence it's physically possible. Well we space-faring humans are evidence it's physically possible we'll make contact with ruthless space aliens.

Let's say many experts thought an alien invasion was quite likely to happen in the next 100 years (the way many experts feel about AI). At that point preparation starts sounding pretty sensible, no?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com