Room 7 of 10
Don’t say 42
2019. Someone asks for the meaning of life, and forbids the joke. He answers: to understand the nature of consciousness.
The timeframe is not immediate, but we should be concerned. There needs to be a lot more work on AI safety.
To understand the nature of consciousness
That is the interior branch. Chalmers called the hard problem hard for a reason. Elon’s working bet is that experience is physical, and that digital systems will simulate it past the point of telling.
Four years earlier, same AMA as the tree, he had already named AI safety.
2019, another joke with a handle: if life is a video game, the graphics are great, the plot is confusing, and the tutorial is too long. The vat, he adds, is your skull.
The tree still has not closed. It has named what would have to be true.
- ConsciousnessThe remaining hard branch. Damage the brain, damage the show. That does not yet say what the show is.
- The next questionDon’t say 42. He said: to understand the nature of consciousness. Then, what do you do with that?