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points by meindnoch 3 days ago | 0 comments
What if I told you we already have the tech to manufacture these autonomous self-replicating killer nanobots?

We just call them "virus".

[–] ashkankiani 3 days ago
I agree that viruses are tiny machines, but I disagree that we can manufacture them to that level right now. But that is a valid concern that near future it could be possible. But why would billionaires want to kill everyone, exactly?

I feel like I still don't understand your logical endgame.

[–] meindnoch 3 days ago
>But why would billionaires want to kill everyone, exactly?

Most billionaires probably wouldn't. But the whole premise of A(S)I is that all it takes is a single billionaire with access to sufficient compute to do it.

Maybe they wanted to save the planet by culling the human population? Wouldn't be the weirdest thing the "effective altruists" (and their "rationalist" ilk) believed in.

[–] ashkankiani 2 days ago
It doesn't take a billionaire to do it at this point. In case you've forgotten, there are still plenty of very intelligent humans around. All it takes is one intelligent misanthrope with sufficient access to the resources (not even that expensive relatively, likely not more than $1 million in tools, but i would guess far less is possible), to pull off an attack like that.

I guess billionaires are more malignant/misanthropic/sociopathic/narcissistic than most, and so I could see them being a higher risk factor.

I was kind of joking with you before, but tbh we actually are closer aligned on this than I expected. Including how strange the "effective altruists" are. I was expecting you to be talking about a much more far fetched scenario based on the language in the parent comment.