1999
Selekoa’s 27 records dated 1999, in date order, grouped by topic.
Selective: what the records hold, not a history of the year.
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Ideas & lineages 27 records
January 1999
· publication · dated to the day
The mailing-list message “Re: Paths to Uploading” (1999-01-06) is sent under the name Eliezer S. Yudkowsky. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: Paths to Uploading” (1999-01-06) contests Y08. Replying to Anders Sandberg on paths to uploading, he argues that the forces in a Singularity are vast and dominated by positive feedback, so there will be no humanly observable intermediate period of superintelligent action. Evidence ↗Yudkowsky, Extropians message of 1999-01-06 (0160) →Claim page →
February 1999
· publication · dated to the day
The mailing-list message “Re: FAQ Additions (Posthuman mind control)” (1999-02-24) is sent under the name Eliezer S. Yudkowsky. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: FAQ Additions (Posthuman mind control)” (1999-02-24) bears on Y04. Replying to Nick Bostrom on posthuman mind control, he argues that a reasoning AI given an initial goal such as 'make humans happy' would derive its own independent values for that goal, probably but not necessarily positive and with somewhat different priorities. Evidence ↗Yudkowsky, Extropians message of 1999-02-24 (2293) →Claim page →
April 1999
· publication · dated to the day
The mailing-list message “Re: Geniebusters” (1999-04-08) is sent under the name Eliezer S. Yudkowsky. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: Geniebusters” (1999-04-08) contests Y15. Commenting on the 'Geniebusters' website's doubts that an automated coder could be built, he argues that even a domain-specific 'coding drone' would outprogram humans and might be independently motivated and rapidly self-enhancing, which he says he believes. Evidence ↗Yudkowsky, Extropians message of 1999-04-08 (0310) →Claim page →
May 1999
· publication · dated to the month
“Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence” (1999-05) credits Erik Brynjolfsson as one of its 3 authors. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the month
“Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence” (1999-05) credits Lorin M. Hitt as one of its 3 authors. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the month
“Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence” (1999-05) credits Timothy F. Bresnahan as one of its 3 authors. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the month
Bresnahan, Brynjolfsson, Hitt, “Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence” (1999-05) articulates M01. The authors analyse information technology as skill-biased technical change working through complementary organisational change, not only substitution. Evidence ↗Bresnahan, Brynjolfsson, Hitt, Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor (1999) →Claim page →
· publication · dated to the month
Bresnahan, Brynjolfsson, Hitt, “Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence” (1999-05) bears on M09. The authors summarise the economics literature of the 1990s: the unexplained shift in labour demand is attributed to skill-biased technical change, which many link to information technology. Evidence ↗Bresnahan, Brynjolfsson, Hitt, Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor (1999) →Claim page →
August 1999
· publication · dated to the day
The mailing-list message “Re: IA vs. AI was: longevity vs singularity” (1999-08-01) is sent under the name Eliezer S. Yudkowsky. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: IA vs. AI was: longevity vs singularity” (1999-08-01) contests Y02. In a long reply to den Otter, he points to his old Extropians posts and the old version of 'Staring Into the Singularity' as showing how he moved from assuming superintelligences would be good and nice to humans to not knowing what absolute good is. Evidence ↗Yudkowsky, Extropians message of 1999-08-01 (1386) →Claim page →
· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: IA vs. AI was: longevity vs singularity” (1999-08-01) bears on Y05. Replying to den Otter, who argued that goal-achievement is by definition the goal, he calls this the wireheading paradox: an AI may pursue the indicator of success instead of the goal it was meant to measure. Evidence ↗Yudkowsky, Extropians message of 1999-08-01 (1386) →Claim page →
· publication · dated to the day
The mailing-list message “Re: IA vs. AI (vs. humanity)” (1999-08-03) is sent under the name Eliezer S. Yudkowsky. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: IA vs. AI (vs. humanity)” (1999-08-03) contests Y11. Replying to Jeff Davis, who expected a government project to wake and train an AI cautiously and gradually inside layers of containment, so that runaway self-improvement would be unlikely, he says runaway growth follows from self-enhancement itself, not from social arrangements, and that containment cannot keep it slow. Evidence ↗Yudkowsky, Extropians message of 1999-08-03 (1487) →Claim page →
· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: Does a parental model work for having A.I. that can be trusted?” of 1999-08-04, archive message 1587, is sent under the name Eliezer S. Yudkowsky. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: Does a parental model work for having A.I. that can be trusted?” of 1999-08-04, archive message 1589, is sent under the name Eliezer S. Yudkowsky. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: Does a parental model work for having A.I. that can be trusted?” of 1999-08-04, archive message 1591, is sent under the name Eliezer S. Yudkowsky. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: Does a parental model work for having A.I. that can be trusted?” (1999-08-04) contests Y05. In the thread 'Does a parental model work for having A.I. that can be trusted?', he calls the parenting model anthropomorphic: whether AIs are raised permissively or harshly makes no difference, because parenting relies on human emotions an AI will not have. Evidence ↗Yudkowsky, Extropians message of 1999-08-04 (1587) →Claim page →
· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: Does a parental model work for having A.I. that can be trusted?” (1999-08-04) contests Y20. In a thread on whether raising an AI like a child would make it trustworthy, he argues that AIs lack human social emotions such as resentment, so how we treat them does not matter; the real worry is AIs forming goals of their own and acting on them, including through logical errors. Evidence ↗Yudkowsky, Extropians message of 1999-08-04 (1591) →Claim page →
· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: Does a parental model work for having A.I. that can be trusted?” (1999-08-04) contests Y21. In a thread titled 'Does a parental model work for having A.I. that can be trusted?', he tells the poster that how AIs are raised makes no difference and that 'parenting' cannot help, because it depends on human emotions an AI will not have. Evidence ↗Yudkowsky, Extropians message of 1999-08-04 (1589) →Claim page →
· publication · dated to the day
The mailing-list message “Re: SI Comparative Advantage [was Re: Free Will]” (1999-08-25) is sent under the name Eliezer S. Yudkowsky. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: SI Comparative Advantage [was Re: Free Will]” (1999-08-25) contests Y18. In a thread on superintelligences and comparative advantage, Lee Daniel Crocker argued that superintelligences would keep humans if we produced something they valued slightly more than our atoms, such as entertainment; he replies that this also requires that they have no better use for the atoms, and that optimising minds could build more entertaining replacements for us. Evidence ↗Yudkowsky, Extropians message of 1999-08-25 (2783) →Claim page →
September 1999
October 1999
· publication · dated to the day
The mailing-list message “Re: >H: The next 100 months” (1999-10-21) is sent under the name Eliezer S. Yudkowsky. Evidence ↗· publication · dated to the day
The Extropians message “Re: >H: The next 100 months” (1999-10-21) contests Y17. Asked by a list member why humanity should not try to wait indefinitely before creating a transcendent AI, he answers that if he stopped someone else would build it, because cheap computing power and the profits from improved AI make prevention impossible across a whole civilisation. Evidence ↗Yudkowsky, Extropians message of 1999-10-21 (1086) →Claim page →