Rick Rosner: So, we can think of three major existential threats to humanity: AI run amok Climate change Nuclear war And then there’s the more manageable threat of an asteroid impact. Can you think of any other major risks? Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Supervolcanic eruption. Biological weapons. Solar flares. Gamma-ray bursts, global economic and societal collapse, …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1296: Existential Risks, AI Alignment, and Global Stability
Rick Rosner: Musk is posting bullshit on his personal website, which is X. Today—February 19—the latest bullshit is that his team of investigators supposedly uncovered $1.9 billion of fraudulent money that was funneled through Stacey Abrams, the unsuccessful candidate for Georgia governor. It’s horseshit. They’ve pulled stunts like this before—claiming that millions of dead people …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1295: Musk’s False Claims, High-IQ Communities, and Mental Decline
Rick Rosner: So, AI—when you ask it appropriate questions—makes no bones about eventually supplanting human cognition. What passes for common sense now tells you the same thing: we have figured out how to create "thinky stuff." Scott Douglas Jacobsen: We've made our own natural predator. Rosner: And we know that "thinky stuff" in biological beings …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1294: AI, Scaling Laws, and Political Chaos
Rick Rosner: So, ChatGPT-3 Mini-High—or is it O3-Mini-High? At what point in the future would you predict, with certainty, that AI cognition—the sheer volume of artificial cognition—will surpass human cognition? It was not a well-formed question. The question itself, combined with the statement, is essentially marketing. The terms are not clearly defined. So, I considered …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1293: AI Cognition, Politics, and the Future of Science
Rick Rosner: I’ve got a short one. We have a lot of streaming services for TV, and we’ve been trying to cut our bill down. Our cable and all that shit was way too expensive. We cut loose some of our boxes and some of the channels we could get. And now we have to …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1292: AI Ads, Turing Tests, and String Theory
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Is it necessary to wash your hands after picking up dog poop with toilet paper? I do. Rick Rosner: I’m not sure if it’s strictly necessary, but I’m in the habit of washing my hands frequently. It’s a habit that started during COVID—or maybe even earlier when I was living in New …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1291: Handwashing, NYC Hygiene, and Public Spaces
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Hey, Rick. What about when theologians say the universe is fine-tuned for life? Most sufficiently large universes, with many planets orbiting most stars, likely have conditions that support life. I would assume that it's difficult to create a universe without at least some habitable regions. Certainly, planets can be negentropic—they receive energy …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, can the universe be meaningfully said to exist if there are no observers? Rick Rosner: You could argue that the universe observes itself. If you accept the premise that the universe is fundamentally made of information and that information requires a supporting structure, then yes, you can say it exists. The …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, hey, Rick. How would you calculate the information content of the universe over time in an IC model? Rick Rosner: Well, I’m sure that if we checked Wikipedia, we would find a roughly agreed-upon estimate of the universe’s information content, likely measured in bits, based on physical principles like the Bekenstein …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Bear, writer boy—what have you been writing? Rosner: The novel I’ve been writing begins with something close to a murder. Jacobsen: Dark? Rosner: Yes. I’ve been going through that chapter again, ensuring the logistics and the action make physical and medical sense. Because it’s not as simple as putting a bullet in …
Rick Rosner 