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by jerf4 hours ago |
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upvoteby blibble4 hours ago|
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> We have prior art that says humans don't just launch all the nukes just because the computers or procedures say to.

previously no-one had spent trillions of dollars trying to convince the world that those computers were "Artificial Intelligence"

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upvoteby nine_k4 hours ago|
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They had to do with "state-of-the-art radars", "military-grade communication systems", etc.
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upvoteby lesuorac13 minutes ago|
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Yeah but they dealt with sota and military-spec systems their entire career and they know that it just means "lowest bidder".
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upvoteby escapecharacter3 hours ago|
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Or "alignment" which means "let's ensure the AIs recommend launching nukes only when it makes sense to, based on our [assumed objective] values"
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upvoteby Barrin924 hours ago|
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of course they did. That's the literal topic of War Games (1983). You should actually be somewhat reassured that we aren't living during the era of Dr. Strangelove where you had characters in the military industrial complex who were significantly more insane when it came to the beliefs of what computer systems and nukes can do.

There was a time when people wanted to dig tunnels with nukes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare

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upvoteby roenxi3 hours ago|
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> There was a time when people wanted to dig tunnels with nukes

The article seems to be about mining rather than tunnelling.

And the issue with the idea being? We also dig using explosives, there isn't an in-principle problem. Reading the wiki article it looks like the yields were excessive, but at the end of the day mining involves the use of things that go boom. It is easy to imagine small nukes having a place in the industry.

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upvoteby idiotsecant3 hours ago|
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Digging tunnels with nukes sounds better to me than shooting them at each other!
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upvoteby paxys3 hours ago|
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> We have prior art that says humans don't just launch all the nukes just because the computers or procedures say to.

This relies on processes being in place to ensure that a human will always make the final decision. What about when that gets taken away?

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upvoteby trehalose3 hours ago|
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I find it hard to imagine that the people in a position to kill those processes could ever be that zealously in love with AI, but recent events have given me a tiny bit of doubt.
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upvoteby ge964 hours ago|
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I briefly got into a "rabbithole" of watching videos about trying to intercept BMs and glide hypersonic weapons, pretty interesting, decoys deployed in space... the outcome seemed to be not good, can't guarantee 100% interception
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upvoteby compass_copium3 hours ago|
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A missile will always be cheaper than a missile interceptor, and the interceptor will never be a 1:1 kill. Building a missile interceptor system ia a good way to get your strategic opponent to build a bigger stockpile.
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upvoteby LorenPechtel1 hours ago|
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Disagree on always being cheaper. Military planners are obsessed with the best weapons, such interceptors are pricey. But look at Israel: Iron Dome. ~$50k/shot. They deliberately built a dumb SAM because it was designed to go against dumb opponents--objects falling freely on a ballistic trajectory. While they are usually facing light stuff that isn't even worth that they have successfully engaged longer range stuff that costs many times what the interceptor costs.

Overall, though, the offense always wins this one because interceptors can only protect a limited area whereas missiles can go anywhere.

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upvoteby compass_copium1 hours ago|
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Iron Dome is a great example of my point. It is a $50k interceptor designed to take out a propane tank with a rocket strapped to it, not a real ballistic missile like a Scud.

Patriot missiles ($7MM) take out Scuds ($3MM).

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upvoteby badRNG4 hours ago|
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We shouldn't be the least bit surprised no human has complied so far.

If they had, then we wouldn't be having this conversation. For all we know, there may be a vast multiverse of universes some with humans and we would only find ourselves having this conversation in one of the universes where no human pressed the button.

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upvoteby thfuran3 hours ago|
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By that logic, it may actually be pretty common for rabbits to swallow the sun. We just haven't seen it happen because we're in the wrong universe and would've died it it happened in ours.
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upvoteby sir00100103 hours ago|
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Anthropic Principle
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upvoteby flr034 hours ago|
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I hope humans in charge are as wise now as they were then.
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upvoteby phs318u2 hours ago|
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Surely that’s the definition of a quixotic hope.
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