Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | cobblestone32's commentslogin

> The user never specify the goal clearly enough for AI system to work.

This is sort of a fundamental problem with all AI. If you tell a robot assistant to "make a cup of tea", how's it supposed to know that that implies "don't break the priceless vase in the kitchen" and "don't step on the cat's tail", et cetera. You're never going to align it well enough with "human values" to be safe. Even just defining in human-understandable terms what those values are is a deep existential question of philosophy, let alone specifying it for a machine that's capable of acting in the world independently.


I'm having a hard time seeing a valid comparison between the act of keeping the species alive and the act of consuming poisonous chemicals.


I mean, it's not often you hear about tobacco dealers shooting each other in a crowded mall, or alcohol bosses getting their house blown up (or sometimes their neighbors house). So there might be a few small differences between companies and criminal gangs.


> or alcohol bosses getting their house blown up (or sometimes their neighbors house).

There was a time when alcohol dealing led to an awful lot of that sort of violence. We put a stop to it when we legalized Alcohol and regulated it.


While I don't disagree with the assertion that churches are somewhat "predatory" with the threat of hell etc., this statement isn't really supporting that thesis:

> if you go and put money in every sunday will help you organize weddings and funerals which are very important dates for people

So basically you're paying for a service? Your argument would be much better if they didn't actually help people with important stuff.


Creating a hierarchy in lets say a small town, were people who pay in can have a funeral early/better date/better priest while people who dont pay get a wednesday mid work and no one can attend so the family has to say goodbye to their loved one without people creates the kind of environment where participating is not optional.

That is the kind of situation the funeral thing was highlighting, not the provision of a service, but the creation of a coercive incentive for social hierarchy and emotional support around a very difficult moment.

Its the same reason predatory loans are predatory, not because loans are bad but because you find people at their lowest and provide a service where they are incentivised to make reckless financial choices


I mean, there's a limited number of dates and priests. Are you suggesting there should be a fixed fee for funerals, which dates and priests being allocated randomly? That's certainly analogous to state-funded healthcare as compared to private healthcare, but unless you want the government to interfere in the church, I'm having a hard time seeing how you'd implement that. And I mean, all cultural things are "manipulation" in some sense, take the case of going to see the latest superhero movie on the release day. Of course the tickets would be more pricey, is that also coercive?


> I'm having a hard time seeing how you'd implement that.

Similar to shark loans, creating alternatives will always come with compromises. either we have public lenders that will lend money that will never be returned, or we leave a strata of society without access to capital.

But diagnosing the predatory nature of shark loans does not mean the proposal of an alternative.

I think the church model is coercive, specially when threats are existencial. Hell is beyond any threat you could make to someone who believes in it. Does not mean that I can come up witha. universal, generalisable model for providing adequate funeral rites, emotional support and remove social status from society.


Well...

> In pure form, nicotine is a colorless to yellowish, oily liquid that readily penetrates biological membranes and acts as a potent neurotoxin in insects, where it serves as a antiherbivore toxin.


Can't similar be said for capsaicin?


Are you suggesting pushing it underground (e.g. prohibition or modern marijuana trade in many countries) is better in any way?


Here's a citation about filters.

> The overwhelming majority of independent research shows that filters do not reduce the harms associated with smoking - a fact understood by tobacco industry scientists in the 1960s. In fact, filters may increase the harms caused by smoking by enabling smokers to inhale smoke more deeply into their lungs.

Also, plain common sense will tell you that inhaling toxic smoke through a small piece of paper is not much healthier than inhaling toxic smoke directly.

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9340047/


Great analysis, let's also solve smoking and alcohol over-consumption by some self-reflection. No need for any regulations, people are always perfectly rational and have perfect information about any health implications of what they consume. Addicted to gambling? Just stop it.

(For the record my only vice is coffee.)


Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: