.. The prime directive is bullshit, but I am actually having some considerable difficulty thinking of an appropriate protocol for dealing with alien life from the perspective of deep time. When sending out a swarm of AI to safeguard against someone else doing something deeply stupid to the universe at large, the only things it is at all likely to encounter are apex civilizations that have already successfully dealt with these issues, as demonstrated by their not being dead (and—having home court advantage, such societies will eat it for lunch if it tries anything at all they do not like) or ecosystems which do not yet have tool users in them at all. In the second case, it can dig in and wait. But having it start granting wishes to the first proto-sapient to evolve does not seem.. advisable. The minimal-intervention rule would be “Do not permit anyone to inflict damage to the universe/galaxy at large” but there are a whole bunch of options escalating from there.
Paranoia: Can anyone think of a good way to check for already installed hardware of this type? EMP a random spot and go through the dust with a microscope?
Well. Given my opinion on the ethicalness of nature, my own instructions to such a swarm would be to destroy all life. Through uploading, for the smarter parts, but at any rate stop nature from existing.
It might also be nice to shut off all the stars, because they’re really wasting a lot of energy.
.. The prime directive is bullshit, but I am actually having some considerable difficulty thinking of an appropriate protocol for dealing with alien life from the perspective of deep time. When sending out a swarm of AI to safeguard against someone else doing something deeply stupid to the universe at large, the only things it is at all likely to encounter are apex civilizations that have already successfully dealt with these issues, as demonstrated by their not being dead (and—having home court advantage, such societies will eat it for lunch if it tries anything at all they do not like) or ecosystems which do not yet have tool users in them at all. In the second case, it can dig in and wait. But having it start granting wishes to the first proto-sapient to evolve does not seem.. advisable. The minimal-intervention rule would be “Do not permit anyone to inflict damage to the universe/galaxy at large” but there are a whole bunch of options escalating from there.
Paranoia: Can anyone think of a good way to check for already installed hardware of this type? EMP a random spot and go through the dust with a microscope?
Well. Given my opinion on the ethicalness of nature, my own instructions to such a swarm would be to destroy all life. Through uploading, for the smarter parts, but at any rate stop nature from existing.
It might also be nice to shut off all the stars, because they’re really wasting a lot of energy.