Thinking about what an unaligned AGI is more or less likely to do with its power, as an extension of instrumentally convergent goals and underlying physical and game theoretic constraints, is an IMO neglected and worthwhile exercise. In the spirit of continuing it, a side point follows:
I don’t think turning Earth into a giant computer is optimal for compute-maximizing, because of heat dissipation. You want your computers to be cold, and a solid sphere is the worst 3D shape for that, because it is the solid with the lowest surface area to volume ratio. It is more likely that Earth’s surface would be turned into computers, but then again, all that dumb mass beneath the computronium crust impedes heat dissipation. I think it would make more sense to put your compute in solar orbit. Plenty of energy from the Sun, and matter from the asteroid belts.
Thank you for pointing this out. By “turning Earth into a giant computer” I did indeed mean “the surface of the Earth”. The consequences for biological life are the same, of course. As for heat dissipation, I’m no expert but I guess there would be ways to radiate it into space, using Earth’s internal heat (instead of sunlight) as the main energy source. A Dyson sphere may be optimal in the long run, but I think that turning Earth’s surface into computronium would be a step on the way.
Thinking about what an unaligned AGI is more or less likely to do with its power, as an extension of instrumentally convergent goals and underlying physical and game theoretic constraints, is an IMO neglected and worthwhile exercise. In the spirit of continuing it, a side point follows:
I don’t think turning Earth into a giant computer is optimal for compute-maximizing, because of heat dissipation. You want your computers to be cold, and a solid sphere is the worst 3D shape for that, because it is the solid with the lowest surface area to volume ratio. It is more likely that Earth’s surface would be turned into computers, but then again, all that dumb mass beneath the computronium crust impedes heat dissipation. I think it would make more sense to put your compute in solar orbit. Plenty of energy from the Sun, and matter from the asteroid belts.
I might get around to writing a post about this.
Thank you for pointing this out. By “turning Earth into a giant computer” I did indeed mean “the surface of the Earth”. The consequences for biological life are the same, of course. As for heat dissipation, I’m no expert but I guess there would be ways to radiate it into space, using Earth’s internal heat (instead of sunlight) as the main energy source. A Dyson sphere may be optimal in the long run, but I think that turning Earth’s surface into computronium would be a step on the way.