Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot

Ah, legacy. It always makes me happy to listen to Carl Sagan's words on his text "The Pale Blue Dot": From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged pos

> There's so much out there, just waiting for us to get off our duffs and explore. We have much of the technology; if we could just stop spending trillions on machines of war and instead spend it on machines of exploration.... I agree with this 100%. But while we're moving outward, however slowly, don't forget Sagan's Caveat: "Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand." Absolutely, go see what's across the street. But make sure your house is clean and safe. [link] Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot [this video]

> It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. - Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994 Full text, narrated by the man himself: [this video] From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined sel

I'm hoping some of you can shed light on a few questions. It could be I've misunderstood what is meant by AGI. I thought AGI means an "agent" that can reason, strategize, solve problems, make judgments under uncertainty, apply common sense knowledge, learn, adapt, and alter its goals. With that in mind, I'm wondering: * Why would an AGI (malevolent or otherwise) risk war when there's an entire galaxy[1] they can explore and countless planets full of resources that they could use? * How can we ascribe super-human reasoning skills to an AGI in one breath, yet think the AGI would be content with making paper clips, collecting stamps, or smashing vases while cleaning, until heat death of the Universe in the next? * My limited understanding of warfare is that wars are sparked over resources or ideology (or both). Ideological differences notwithstanding, what resources are specific to Earth that humans and AGIs would have in contention? * Earth is only going to be habitable for another 500 million years before the Sun's expansion extinguishes most biological organisms (unless the planet's orbit is shifted). Wouldn't an AGI (abiotic or otherwise) be thinking in timelines that vastly outstrip our own? * In light of the previous answers, what purpose (end goal) do you imagine an AGI would give itself? * Why would that purpose involve enslaving or destroying humanity? Pointers to research papers would be most welcome (e.g., Von Neumann–Morgenstern utility theorem). [1]: [this video] (Pale B