Nick Bostrom quotes - page 2

Before the prospect of an intelligence explosion, we humans are like small children playing with a bomb. Such is the mismatch between the power of our plaything and the immaturity of our conduct. Superintelligence is a challenge for which we are not ready now and will not be ready for a long time. We have little idea when the detonation will occur, though if we hold the device to our ear we can hear a faint ticking sound. (Nick Bostrom)
Once a discovery has been published, there is no way of un-publishing it. View quote
Nick Bostrom
We would want the solution to the safety problem before somebody figures out the solution to the AI problem. View quote
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. View quote
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!”. View quote
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. View quote
Nick Bostrom
I personally don't think of myself as either an optimist or a pessimist. View quote
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. View quote
Nick Bostrom
When we are headed the wrong way, the last thing we need is progress. View quote
Nick Bostrom
Are you living in a computer simulation? View quote
Nick Bostrom
Human nature is a work in progress. (Nick Bostrom)
We should not be confident in our ability to keep a super-intelligent genie locked up in its bottle forever. View quote
Nick Bostrom
Knowledge about limitations of your data collection process affects what inferences you can draw from the data. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Nick Bostrom