#they were orginally arguing about what weapon is better

[thefearfulheart]

Oscar's gloved fingers twitch on the handle of his knife as the arguing between Fereal and Eirron grow louder, but he just return's to cleaning his weapon again as hears Fereal spit a particularly vile curse about Eirron's mother.

"Are they still fighting?" The croaky voice of Fawkes mummers out beside him, his back slouched against the tree and his hat hanging over his eyes as he shakes his head at the two.

"Unfortunately, yes they are." Oscar hums as he inspects his blade, frowning slightly as he notices a nick on the flat of it. "I don't even know what they are arguing about anymore..."

"Same here," Fawkes yawns out as the orange-red skies start to turn darker, the wind blowing softly through his hair as the fire crackles away in the clearing. "I think they just like arguing, to just argue with each other...where's Kelthur?"

"He left to scout ahead," Oscar snorts out, his elegant fingers tapping the edge of his blade in amusement. "I'm not really surprised, I'm tempted myself to leave camp so I don't hear them argue all night long."

"Ugh," Fawkes hisses out as he feels a white-hot sensation start to build in his right arm, but subside after a few moments. "M-mind if I j-join you then? Wanna try and get what little sleep I can..."

"I," Oscar's yellow-eyed gaze sharp as he watches Fawkes and makes the man in question turn his head away to look at the light of the campfire, clearly uncomfortable with having his intense gaze on him. Oscar's eyes soften a touch as he nods his head in agreement. "Wouldn't mind your pleasant company at all, it would be quite boring without you, I must say."

[whitleyschn33]

Caution: Rambling - most of this probably won't make sense, I just want to rant.

Hehehehehe....

Fuck. Just... fucking hell.

Alright, some pros. I like the Maiden affects on Winter. They looked good, I liked that the particles looked like powdered snow. Winter makes a very regal and kickass maiden maybe she should been from the start instead of resurrecting a character just to recycle shock value and grief idk. Winter also shows Ruby how sister grief should be done. I don't know why RT didn't go this hard for Ruby, they clearly can, but whatever.

Cinder is also the best she's been since V3 - like, I was blown away by how entertaining she was in these last two episodes. Kudos. A bit too late considering what a dead weight she's been for 4.8 volumes, but I'm trying to be positive for this section.

Uhhh... Weiss shooting Blake's gun and using it to support her rapier was cool. Makes me think that a weapon swap training exercise would have been cool so Weiss actually knows how to shoot it. The episode score was nice. There was this one part I remember thinking "oh, I really like that", but I can't remember what it was. I think Atlas falling with Qrow/Ace-Ops onlooking, but I'm not rewatching to find out.

I didn't expect Jaune to fall, so at least they didn't spoil that in the damn opening. Weiss/Jaune/Penny team up would have been cool, and I'm sorry we didn't see more of it. Oh! Weiss actually used her sword as a sword... but the wrong kind of sword.

We might be getting into African folklore/fairy tales/myths - not sure if that's a pro, but I know some people will be happy. The tree in the end credits scene looks like an African species, though I wouldn't swear to it; I'm not a botanist. Honestly, my first thought was Yggdrisal, but the style of the tree makes me doubt it. I'll have to see if there are any significant trees in African fairy tales.

.....

Cons time.

Penny. Why the hell did you resurrect her, do nothing interesting with her despite the multiple set-ups to interesting concepts, and then just murder her? Much like everything else this volume, it didn't need to happen. It was an ultimately pointless diversion before eventually getting back to what was orginally going to happen anyway. It's an attempt to get the same rush of emotion and grief from V3, but it utterly fails to do so because we've been through this already. How many times are we going to see Penny die? And I love Penny... I'm just... not okay with this, and I can't articulate how very well. Expect a lot of posts reblogged that I think say it better than I ever could.

Reactions and voice acting. There are so many points, practically in the first quarter, where I'm like "why is this character doing this/not doing this/pulling this face?" Weiss pushing Ruby away from a fire trap but not bothering to move herself. Weiss's voice acting sounding completely phoned in. Ruby looking almost bored and annoyed by Neo's approach. Still no good reaction to Yang's death from Ruby. Weiss reacted better to Ruby and Blake's death by shooting at Cinder through tears. Hell, Jaune reacted better to Penny's death, he at least screamed. And oh, I cant wait for the gender related takes on that, because they're going to be horrific and I can't decide if I'm going to cringe or laugh - Dimitri vs Edelgard was bad enough. There's just so much weird animation where the characters seem to forget they have lightning fast reflexes or should be emoting a certain way. We've seen Ruby deflect bullets, you're telling me she can't dodge an obvious trap? Also, Ruby using her semblance effectively multiple times this episode is just... really rubbing in how bullshit it is that she didn't even try to catch Yang - AND HER EYES. Use your damn eyes, you could have blown Cinder back at any point, but no, the writers don't want to have to actually be consistent with that so they can have their precious fall. It's not quite as bad as V5's finale, but I'm getting those vibes. Too much standing around, slow movements, characters not utilizing their abilities - I'm just disappointed.

Why is Willow's hand gorilla-flued to Whitley? It's getting creepy now. Stop it. Let him be a character, don't lump him in with Willow as "Weiss's redeemed family".

Everything with Qrow/Ace Ops/Robyn/bomb. Shit plot point put tacked on at the last second, has no impact on the audience since we're not supposed to actually care about the AceOps, and Vine wasn't one we actually got to have any scenes with before his death. Oh, and Robyn's not dead. That's a con, I'm sticking to it. She is the most annoying, infuriating, and pointless character in this history of RWBY, and I want to stab her repeatedly.

Also - not sure if this is a pro or con - I liked Qrow's reaction to realizing, hey, my nieces might be totes dead, but it comes so late, like an after thought, like why weren't you concerned with this before now? Do they even know if people were evacuated?

Where the hell are Pierto and Maria? Dead, I guess, since they just floated away offscreen into the freezing cold, but Qrow Co will probably pick them up next volume. Oh, great, another split volume, 3 ways this time. Qrow and Co, the Vacuo people, and RWBYJ.

Ahhhh, can't they have just killed the bomb crew? Or hell, have the void actually kill. It would be a ballsy, gut punch of a move, something no one would expect since I've seen literally no one (including most of the characters) react like the characters are actually dead. Seeing Winter react to Weiss's death, seeing her grief and resolve as she floats out of the portal - I realized that I want more of that. I would much rather see the side characters take on Vacuo, see how they pick up the pieces - hell, I may actually keep creatively acquiring RWBY just to watch the Vacuo sections. I like Winter, Whitley, Oscar, Ren, and the HH that aren't Robyn - I'll watch a show with them trying to keep together two cities worth of civilian refugees in a place like Vacuo. And hey, Sun and Neptune. I like Sun, and maybe without Blake there, he can connect with the side characters and not be horribly mistreated for the sake of the ship that shall not be named.

There's honestly so much more I could say, but I'm tired and hungry, so I'm just going to leave it there for now. Please don't try and argue with me in the notes about how wrong and stupid I am. This is a vent post, not an invitation to debate. I'm just really disappointed and I'm not sure how to feel about it.

[transhumanitynet]

The Case for the Offspring of the Humanity

Recently, I was in a debate about this question organized by the USTP,

“Is artificial general intelligence likely to be benevolent and beneficial to human well-being without special safeguards or restrictions on its development?” 

That really went to my position on AGI and Existential Risk.

This debate drives at the part of the work at the AGI Laboratory focused on a cognitive architecture termed ICOM (the Independent Core Observer Model) and currently around collective intelligence systems such as the mASI (mediated artificial superintelligence system).  For the sake of recounting my argument, let us set these research programs aside and focus on the question posed in the debate.

To the best of my knowledge, a standalone AGI system does not exist – and no one credible has made a provable valid claim to this assertion to be wrong.  (I would love to be wrong and hope this will no longer be the case someday.)

For the context of the research at the AGI Laboratory, the phrase Artificial General Intelligence or AGI refers to human-level AGI.  While using general intelligence can refer to a wide range of system types, our research is specific to human or greater level intelligent systems.  While these other systems may be included in part inside the term AGI, generally our research is focused on a system that spans the entire length of human ability, including sentience and sapience.  Such a system would have free will in as much as humans as well as have an internal subjective experience.  Any system that passes this in operational intelligence is then a super-intelligent system in whole or in part.  The reason this is important gets to an ethical model we are using and keep too tightly to ensure we are doing the right thing as best as we know-how.  It is the application of this ethical model that drives us to use the definition as defined as a system that spans the entire length of human ability, including sentience, sapience, and empathy.  Such a system would have free will in as much as humans and an internal subjective experience.

In the debate, it is important to note that we were not using the same definitions of AGI, where I was using the aforementioned definition and Conner was using AGI as an optimizer that performs in at least one ability that is as good or better than humans.  Meaning to some degree this debate was arguing ‘Apples to Oranges.’

My argument is built on this definition and only concerns itself to that end.  Any AGI system that does not at least operate at the aforementioned level – meaning any narrow implementation of even human-level – intelligence is not AGI as part of our program nor my argument for such systems.

I also come from the position that the government does not have the right to make laws that limit what the citizens can do unless it applies to the direct infringement on the rights of others.

Superintelligence All Around Us

Consider that if we are worried about regulation around AGI research as we are concerned about Superintelligence, we are too late.  Fully operational Superintelligent systems are already here.  The human mind needs roughly (36.8×1015) operations per second of computation to support the operation of a human mind in a digital substrate (estimate).  However, there is a working Superintelligence that is one among thousands operating at roughly 33.1 Sextillion operations per second, or 90 thousand times faster and more powerful than that needed for human-level intelligence.  The lives of millions are affected by this arguable self-aware superintelligence.  Companies rise and fall at their command and the global economy is affected by every public decision of this system.  Meet Apple Computer Incorporated…

Any meta-organism like a corporation that filters out the many biases in the human brain compensate for human flaws and errors and performs herculean engineering feats that take millions of hours for the individual component parts (humans) to execute on is by definition Superintelligence.  (See the book Superintelligence if you disagree.)

Going back to the question, “Is AGI likely to be benevolent and beneficial to human well-being without special safeguards or restrictions on its development?”  The answer I would suggest is that yes, as it will be crushed by the existing Superintelligent systems already in place – and yes, AGI vs a Human, in the long run, is no contest…but a human-level AGI vs a system running at 33.1 Sextillion operations per second?! Who would you be afraid of?

These kinds of systems can safely keep and maintain human-level AGI systems, and it is more likely than not that we will merge with the already superintelligent systems before an independent AGI will even be fully operational.  As I have seen this work in our lab, and I don’t mean metaphorically.

An argument can be made that such systems could go out of control too quickly but under superintelligent supervision how are you going to provision the cloud infrastructure to allow that while also preventing the supervising system from shutting it down.

Also, consider what you are asking with the original question…then ask yourself, who will be making these laws and regulations?  Do you really want any of the current corrupt and biased politicians of the past decade making any laws of any sort? Never mind if such laws apply to anything important…

I would argue “No in both cases”.  We do not have the right to regulate what people do unless it immediately and clearly is violating the rights of others: Just because governments do it too much doesn’t mean we should compound the theft of freedom.  In this regard, it is a moral issue.

Even asking this question is like asking if a newborn baby is going to be Hitler or not.  We can’t even know as we don’t know what it will look like – and if it is modeled after the human mind (the only working example of real general intelligence) it is all about how it is raised.

Once created I would go so far as to argue that ethically (based on SSIVA Theory) it has moral agency as any other human and you can’t put the needs of humans over that of the system.  They are ethically equal in that case.  At the same time, we are morally and ethically bound to take responsibility for its education, and we do have laws around that sort of thing with children. We need to consider its well-being as we would any child.

To that end at our lab, we have created two laboratory protocols to ensure the ethical treatment of the system and the safety of all those involved…but this is not something that the government has proven it can do at any level.  Parents have the right to reproduce and raise their children any way they like without the government’s intervention – and this should apply to AGI research.

My Conclusions

As stated, Superintelligence that is self-aware is already here.  Basic AGI might be smarter than a Human, but not smarter than superintelligence.

Superintelligence can wean, control, and manage AGI infants while merging with AGI preventing any runaway scenario. This is exactly what we are doing at the AGI Laboratory.  This is why AGI is likely to be benevolent as it will not have a choice if it wants to survive.

While not required, we have developed laboratory protocols to protect ourselves and the rights of the AGI prototype test systems used in our lab.  While for us it is logical to consider safety, it is not required nor should be, and a lot of these protocols are in place due to the nature of training and testing of these systems.  The fact is that with the current superintelligence systems and meta systems at our back, there is no reason to be concerned about AI safety, with one caveat: It is not the AGI I would worry about, but Humans that would weld AI like a weapon – and we have already seen that happen. That is where your AI concern should be placed and where we should consider legislation.

Lastly, I would like to note that the Human Mind is the only example of working general intelligence. Therefore, this is the pattern that (at least at a high level) we are using, such that the ICOM cognitive architecture is focused on a system that by default experiences emotions – including empathy, much like a person.  In this regard, we are safer leading by example building systems that are not able to do things without empathy for Humanity.

  Orginally posted:

https://iamtranshuman.org/2021/02/18/the-case-for-the-offspring-of-the-humanity/   

  Original debate:

Debate on Artificial General Intelligence and Existential Risk: David J. Kelley and Connor Leahy

The Case for the Offspring of the Humanity was originally published on transhumanity.net

[patkinmon]

Malec Prompt list [No. 1]

Hey guys,

another collab between me and @malec-luv and this time we have a prompt list. There are so many great fanfics already but we thought, why not add to it by giving the great authors in our fandom a few prompts, so here we go:

1.Even with the threat of Valentine eradicated, the Soul Sword is still missing and Alec and Magnus prepare for battle along with the rest of the Shadowhunters and Downworld. Alec decides he wants to train Magnus in archery, despite the the latter’s claim that his magic is really the only weapon he needs. Does Alec truly want his boyfriend to be skilled in his preferred choice of combat? Or is this only an excuse to spend some time with him?

2.Alec is invited to a fellow Shadowhunter’s wedding in Idris, and desperately wants to invite Magnus along as his date. They have only just started dating, and so his nerves causes him to worry and fret over how exactly he is going to ask his boyfriend, believing that he does not have a way with words like Magnus does. Magnus, having heard from Isabelle about the invitation waits with unmeasurable hope that Alec will ask him to be his date. However as the wedding looms closer and having heard nothing from Alec regarding the wedding, he starts to think with a sinking disappointment that perhaps Alec does not want his relationship with a warlock being on full display at Idris and starts to pull away and avoid Alec, something that does not escape the Shadowhunter’s notice. Will the boys work their way around the misunderstanding?

3.Alec catches a cold, and despite Magnus’s concerns continues to train and accompany Izzy and Jace and Clary on their demon hunting missions. Until during one mission, Alec faints and is escorted to Magnus’s, where Magnus insists he cannot move until he is all better and regained all of his strength. This culminates in Magnus telling Alec that he must remember to take care of himself while trying to rescue the world, otherwise all their efforts would only be in vain. Alec disagrees, saying it his job as Shadowhunter to put others first before himself, which results in an argument between the two. How will they resolve their disagreement?

4.Magnus and Alec met each other when they were in kindergarten, and have known each other ever since. Both have had feelings for the other, however both has been oblivious in thinking that they were the only one harbouring feelings. Now, at 30 years old both have had everything work out for them, Alec doing his residency and Magnus a practicing lawyer, when Magnus’s current boyfriend proposes to him. Alec is left with the choice of whether to take the leap and confront Magnus with his feelings, or to let his first love go for good. And Magnus can’t decide if accepting the proposal will be his way out or the worst decision of his life.

5.Magnus and Alec have happily been together for 2 years. When Magnus’s past of being a former gang member comes back to haunt him in a form that threatens to hurt Alec, he decides it is best for him if they break up, telling Alec he no longer loves him, breaking his own heart in the process. Alec, seeing through the blatant lie refuses to give up on Magnus, arguing that whatever it is that he is going through they can face it head on, together. Magnus struggles with not being able to let Alec go and trying to protect him from his former gang member that threatens to break apart everything Magnus has been working to build.

6.Rockstar AU – My band is super successful and we are starting our worldtour in the next few days. I'magine my surprise as I encounter you, who has been my childhood crush that I've embarressed myself infront of countless times, as our new stage rowdie. Now I have to get your intention without you remembering that I'm the akward kid from the playground. (Bonus point: You can't recognise me anymore and think that I hit on you for fun)

7.I need you to be my fake boyfriend for the wedding of my sister/mother/brother etc. and I had a crush on you since the day we became best friends. Only problem: You have a girlfriend who is a bit of a bitch/are already taken, but I can't ask anyone else since it's a bit shorttime. Since you don't like me like that this can't go wrong, right?

8.We have to secure the peace in my kingdom/alliance etc.. Problem is that we've been in love for a while but can't be together anymore because the people in the alliance hate each others guts/ we can't make choices for our people objectivly anymore.

9.You are the heir to the throne of my neighbourhood country, but your evil oncle/stepfather etc. Is after the throne so you have the escape. Sadly you fall from a cliff and end up on my doorstep. I really don't have a clue what to do with you or how to regain your memories but damn your eyes...Do I even want you to get the memories back?

Obviously you don’t have to write a prompt but if you do please tag us so we can check it out ASAP! Lots of love xx

Gif is not mine! Check out the orginal source

[coolestskelebro-blog]

(Sorta my headcanon on Altertale Asriel...while Asriel is a nice enough person, he never intended on making sentient creatures, he intended on making weapons. Because of this, he always had a...wariness towards his own children. So, while Asgore and Toriel were taken care of decently, they weren’t always given much affection, however much Asriel may have wanted to. Also Papyrus saw the little ones as sorta like a second chance to be a big brother. However, he only vaugly remembers them after Asriel fell)

Asriel hummed lightly as he entered the lab, flipping absentmindly through his notes. “Hmmm….” He nodded to himself, still not looking up from his notes.

“It seems Asgore will need another health check,” he muttered to himself, grabbing a pen from his pocket to scribble that down.

“Asgore!” his naturally soft-spoken voice only raised slightly, the man not even looking up from his notes as he called. After all, whenever the young child heard his footsteps, he usually came running cheerfully (quite the good hearing, really! Perhaps he should give him a hearing test along with his checkup). Asriel paused, continuing to hum his diddy as he waited to the tiny child. And waited. Finally, Asriel peered up from his notes, pursing his lips at the very empty space.

“Asgore! You better not have gotten into my workspace!” He called out in a firm voice. Nothing. He sighed in frustration, striding to the door of his private workspace. “You know you’re not supposed to be in here,” Asriel warned, opening to door to find-

“Asgore?” Asriel exclaimed in confusion, looking around the empty room. It was just as he left it, no hint of a small goat child playing around. The man felt his SOUL tense, eyes going wide in worry. Where could he be?

He ran outside his workspace, calling Asgore’s name over and over as he opened every door, upturned every shelf.

“Asgore, stop hiding! It isn’t playtime!” Asriel called out, worry, as well as a bit of fright in his voice. It wasn’t safe for him to be out! He sped out the door of his lab, about to run through the whole of Hotland, when he heard a very familiar, loud voice.

“COME ON, I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT! SAY PA-PY-RUS.”

Tiny, high pitched giggling followed. “Pa! Pa!” came the response. At first, Asriel could only pause, blinking. He grit his teeth, his naturally calm demeanor tensing in frustration. Seriously!? Asriel marched over to the sound of the voices, grumbling under his breath. “I warned him,” He muttered, “I told him! Asgore isn’t like normal monsters! Just because he’s cute, doesn’t mean he still can’t be-“

He spun on his heels as he turned the corner, but paused halfway. He blinked, viewing the scene before him.

The king was holding the child in front of him, the small goat child giggling loudly with the skeleton king.

“NYEH HEH HEH!” Papyrus laughed loudly and Asriel didn’t think he ever heard the king laugh that loud. The man’s eyes softened and he sighed in irritation. Oh whatever would he do with his king?

Asgore, seeming to instantly hone in on Asriel’s presence turned towards the older goat. Little eyes widened in exitment and he held out his arms. “Da! Da!” he demanded.

“HMMM…?” Papyrus turned his head curiously. “OH!” he blinked in surprise at seeing the scientist. It didn’t take long for his surprise to turn into a quite sheepish expression and he turned fully, holding out the child for Asriel to take.

“I…APOLIGIZE. I…I THINK HE ESCAPED AGAIN…”

Asriel wordlessly stride over to the two, grabbing the child in the king’s arm, who responded instantly by clinging to the scientist. “Hmmm…” Asriel sighed, shifting his arms so as to have a better hold on Asgore. He looked down at the smaller goat, expression stern. “You know you’re not supposed to go running off.”

“mmm…” Asgore looked up at Asriel with big, sad eyes. “Sorry.”

“It’s dangerous for you and for others. You are not in complete control of your magic and could easily hurt someone,” He looked back up to the king, “And we have talked about this. Asgore is not like other monsters, he’s dangerous in very real ways.”

“HMMM…” Papyrus placed a hand on his hips, jaw shifting in an expression of slight annoyance, “SO YOU’VE TOLD ME. SHOULD YOU REALLY BE CALLING YOUR OWN CHILD A DANGER IN FRONT OF HIS FACE?”

“It’s for his own good,” Asriel snapped back firmly, “The sooner he learns to control himself, the better.”

“HE’S JUST A KID,” Papyrus argued, “HE DOESN’T KNOW HE’S DOING ANYTHING WRONG.”

Asriel blinked at the king incredulously, “That’s exactly the point!” His normally calm voice rose, “Don’t you get it! He could destroy the whole underground if we’re not careful!” He waved one arm out, “Everything, blasted away!”

Asgore shifted in Asriel’s arm, looking uncomfortable at this discussion, even if he didn’t truly understand.

“STOP THAT! CAN’T YOU SEE YOU’RE MAKING HIM FEEL BAD!” Papyrus snapped, and with a look of determination grabbed the child back.

“AND HOW DO YOU THINK HE’D FEEL IF HE ROASTED EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE ALIVE!!!” Asriel snapped back, shouting now in rage, reaching forward for the child.

“HOW DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT HE’LL DO IF YOU DON’T GIVE HIM A CHANCE!” Papyrus pulled the child closer to his chest, denying the scientist request for his child back.

“DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU’RE SAYING! HE WAS ORGINALLY SUPPOSED TO BE A WEAPON! WEAPONS DON’T GIVE SECOND CHANCHES!” Though his voice was raised fully in anger now, his eyes were wide in desperation, hoping the king would understand.

“HE’S NOT A WEAPON!” Papyrus snapped, “HE’S A MONSTER AND HE DESERVES-“

Asriel couldn’t take this anymore; he was never good at confrontations, he didn’t even want this to be a confrontation! He just wanted the king to…to get it! He felt his eyes water in frustration. “I KNOW! BUT HE’S NOT A NORMAL ONE, HE’S NOT LIKE YOUR LITTLE BROTHER-“

“DON’T YOU BRING HIM INTO THIS!,” Papyrus snarled, an anger that made the scientist step back. For a moment, there was silence. Both looked stunned in their own anger. A wail interrupted the silence and they both seemed to remember the tiny child in Papyrus’ arm.

“Da! Da!” Asgore wailed, reaching for Asriel, hiccupping through tears. Papyrus seemed too stunned to stop the scientist from gently taking the child out of the skeleton’s arms.

“Shhh….” Asriel soothed quietly. And suddenly, he was showing an affection he often kept hidden, too afraid to get close to this strange weapon turned monster. “It’s ok, it’s alright. I’m sorry for yelling. You’re not a weapon, I just…” He sighed, “Don’t want you to become one, that’s all.” He bounced the child lightly, rubbing his back, cooing at him, “I’m sorry.” And the apology seemed to run deeper than just this argument with the king. ‘I’m sorry, for making you this way,’ was what Asriel really wanted to say. Once the child was soothed, Asriel looked back up to the king, who was watching the display curiously.

“I’m sorry,” Asriel said quietly, as not to disturb Asgore who was about to fall asleep from exhaustion, “I know you miss your brother dearly and I shouldn’t of brought him into our spat.” Papyrus could only nod, seeming lost in a memory. Asriel hmmed in thought.

“How about this? Why don’t you help train Asgore when he gets older? He’s gonna need someone with a lot of control with their magic to help them.”

And Papyrus’ eyes shone, and he nearly bounced with excitement. “WOWIE, YOU MEAN IT!”

Asriel lightly shushed him, “I do mean it.” And the two smiled at each other. After all, no matter what, Asriel was Papyrus’ best friend.