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Stephen Hawking on the dangers of advanced AI

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internet law? (Score: 2, Interesting)

by danieldvorkin@pipedot.org on 2014-05-05 04:31 (#1CB)

Isn't there a Somebody-or-other's Law that says that all eminent physicists will eventually embarrass themselves and everyone else by making silly pronouncements about things wildly outside their area of expertise? Sadly, Hawking seems to have reached that point in his career.

Re: internet law? (Score: 4, Insightful)

by rocks@pipedot.org on 2014-05-05 12:31 (#1CR)

I've heard this meme a lot and, for better or worse, I've often liked it. There is something refreshing about viewing the genius in our society as normal in other respects.

On the other hand, it takes amazing skill, luck, or fortune to become someone whose voice has a platform in society, its hard to judge someone for using the platform once they've reached this status. I figure we are all pretty opinionated about lots of topics in our own circles of influence?

Re: internet law? (Score: 4, Interesting)

by danieldvorkin@pipedot.org on 2014-05-05 14:44 (#1CY)

Oh, you're probably right--I make pronouncements about all kinds of things all the time, and if I had the kind of platform Hawking does I'm sure my dumber statements would be blown up to cringe-inducing proportions. OTOH, a lot of people will give such statements by Hawking, or any eminent scientist, far more credit than they deserve, and that's a problem. And it does seem that physicists are particularly prone to this kind of thing, although scientists in other fields certainly aren't immune.

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Time Reason Points Voter
2014-05-05 16:47 Insightful +1 computermachine@pipedot.org
2014-05-05 19:30 Interesting +1 fishybell@pipedot.org
2014-05-05 16:29 Interesting +1 rocks@pipedot.org

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