Noah

“The inner workings of batteries and rocket engines are well understood, governed by known physics recorded in careful textbooks. AIs, on the other hand, are grown, and no one understands their inner workings. There are fewer equations to constrain one's thinking... and so, many opportunities to think about high-minded ideals like truth-seeking instead.

If you know the history of science, this kind of talk is recognizable as the stage of folk theory, the stage where lots of different people are inventing lots of different theories that appeal to them personally, the way people talk before science has really gotten started on something. They're the words of an alchemist who's decided that some complicated philosophical scheme will let them transmute lead into gold.”
― Eliezer Yudkowsky, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All

“When ye come where I have stepped
Ye will wonder why ye wept;”
― Edwin Arnold, After Death in Arabia

“Mostly, they are deceptive sweetenings of existence, like speedier communications which unpleasantly accelerate the tempo of life and leave us with less time than ever before. Omnis festinatio ex parte diaboli est—all haste is of the devil, as the old masters used to say.”
― Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

“Man breathes in oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide,” I called to Mona.

“What?”

“Science.”

“Oh.”

“One of the secrets of life man was a long time understanding: Animals breathe in what animals breathe out, and vice versa.”

“I didn’t know.”

“You know now.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Cat's Cradle