I think you might be able to design advanced nanosystems without AI doing long term real world optimization.
Well a sufficiently large team of smart humans could probably design nanotech. The question is how much an AI could help.
Suppose unlimited compute. You program a simulation of quantum field theory. Add a GUI to see visualizations and move atoms around. Designing nanosystems is already quite a bit easier.
Now suppose you brute force search over all arrangements of 100 atoms within a 1nm box, searching for the configuration that most efficiently transfers torque.
You do similar searches for the smallest arrangement of atoms needed to make a functioning logic gate.
Then you download an existing microprocessor design, and copy it (but smaller) using your nanologic gates.
I know that if you start brute forcing over a trillion atoms, you might find a mesaoptimizer. (Although even then I would suspect that visualization inspection shouldn’t result in anything brain hacky. It would only be actually synthesizing such a thing that was dangerous. (or maybe possibly simulating it, if the mesaoptimizer realizes it’s in a simulation and there are general simulation escape strategies ))
So look at the static output of your brute forcing. If you see anything that looks computational, delete it. Don’t brute force anything too big.
(Obviously you need human engineers here, any long term real world planning is coming from them.)
I think you might be able to design advanced nanosystems without AI doing long term real world optimization.
Well a sufficiently large team of smart humans could probably design nanotech. The question is how much an AI could help.
Suppose unlimited compute. You program a simulation of quantum field theory. Add a GUI to see visualizations and move atoms around. Designing nanosystems is already quite a bit easier.
Now suppose you brute force search over all arrangements of 100 atoms within a 1nm box, searching for the configuration that most efficiently transfers torque.
You do similar searches for the smallest arrangement of atoms needed to make a functioning logic gate.
Then you download an existing microprocessor design, and copy it (but smaller) using your nanologic gates.
I know that if you start brute forcing over a trillion atoms, you might find a mesaoptimizer. (Although even then I would suspect that visualization inspection shouldn’t result in anything brain hacky. It would only be actually synthesizing such a thing that was dangerous. (or maybe possibly simulating it, if the mesaoptimizer realizes it’s in a simulation and there are general simulation escape strategies ))
So look at the static output of your brute forcing. If you see anything that looks computational, delete it. Don’t brute force anything too big.
(Obviously you need human engineers here, any long term real world planning is coming from them.)