Nick Bostrom quotes - page 2

Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher known for his work on existential risk, artificial intelligence, and the future of humanity. His influential book "Superintelligence" explores the potential impact of advanced AI on civilization. He has played a crucial role in shaping global discussions about the long-term future and ethical challenges of emerging technologies. Here are 40 of his quotes:

Once a discovery has been published, there is no way of un-publishing it.

Nick Bostrom

We would want the solution to the safety problem before somebody figures out the solution to the AI problem.

Nick Bostrom

Discovering traces of life on Mars would be of tremendous scientific significance: The first time that any signs of extraterrestrial life had ever been detected. Many people would also find it heartening to learn that we're not entirely alone in this vast, cold cosmos.

Nick Bostrom

[If] our actions have even the slightest effect on the probability of eventual colonization, this will outweigh their effect on when colonization takes place. For standard utilitarians, priority number one, two, three and four should consequently be to reduce existential risk. The utilitarian imperative "Maximize expected aggregate utility!”.

Nick Bostrom

Traits acquired during one's lifetime - muscles built up in the gym, for example - cannot be passed on to the next generation. Now with technology, as it happens, we might indeed be able to transfer some of our acquired traits on to our selected offspring by genetic engineering.

Nick Bostrom

I personally don't think of myself as either an optimist or a pessimist.

Nick Bostrom

The first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.

Nick Bostrom

When we are headed the wrong way, the last thing we need is progress.

Nick Bostrom

Are you living in a computer simulation?

Nick Bostrom

We should not be confident in our ability to keep a super-intelligent genie locked up in its bottle forever.

Nick Bostrom

Knowledge about limitations of your data collection process affects what inferences you can draw from the data.

Nick Bostrom

It's unlikely that any of those natural hazards will do us in within the next 100 years if we've already survived 100,000. By contrast, we are introducing, through human activity, entirely new types of dangers by developing powerful new technologies. We have no record of surviving those.

Nick Bostrom

By anybody's standards, there is a huge amount of unnecessary and undeserved suffering that is just bad and that we should get rid of.

Nick Bostrom