“ASIs will not leave just a little sunlight for Earth ” by Eliezer Yudkowsky

A common claim among e/accs is that, since the solar system is big, Earth will be left alone by superintelligences. A simple rejoinder is that just because Bernard Arnault has $170 billion, does not mean that he'll give you $77.18.

Earth subtends only 4.54e-10 = 0.0000000454% of the angular area around the Sun, according to GPT-o1.[1]

Asking an ASI to leave a hole in a Dyson Shell, so that Earth could get some sunlight not transformed to infrared, would cost It 4.5e-10 of Its income.

This is like asking Bernard Arnalt to send you $77.18 of his $170 billion of wealth.

In real life, Arnalt says no.

But wouldn't humanity be able to trade with ASIs, and pay Them to give us sunlight? This is like planning to get $77 from Bernard Arnalt by selling him an Oreo cookie.

To extract $77 from Arnalt, it's not a sufficient [...]

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
September 23rd, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/F8sfrbPjCQj4KwJqn/asis-will-not-leave-just-a-little-sunlight-for-earth

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.