everyonedies

Archive 2026-09-24 · 185 entries · 14 chapters

Chapters

Chapter 1

Humanity’s Special Power

This is the online supplement to Chapter 1 of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. Below, we’ll cover common questions and expand on topics from the book.

Some topics that aren’t covered below, because they’re covered in Chapter 1 of the book, include:

Questions

  1. Is intelligence a meaningful concept?
  2. Is “human-level intelligence” a meaningful concept?
  3. Doesn’t intelligence consist of multiple skills?
  4. Isn’t intelligence overrated?
  5. Is “general intelligence” a meaningful concept?
  6. Is “intelligence” a simple scalar quantity?
  7. Will AI cross critical thresholds and take off?
  8. Isn’t ChatGPT already a general intelligence?
  9. How smart could a superintelligence get?
  10. But aren’t there big obstacles to reaching superintelligence?
  11. Isn’t it impossible to predict the behavior of a superintelligence?
  12. Won’t machines be fundamentally uncreative, or otherwise fatally flawed?
  13. Isn’t there something special about humans that mere machines could never emulate?
  14. Are you saying machines will become conscious?

Extended Discussion

  1. More on Intelligence as Prediction and Steering
  2. The Shallowness of Current AIs
  3. Appreciating the Power of Intelligence
  4. Special Behavior is Built out of Mundane Parts
  5. The Same Work Can Be Done in Many Different Ways

Source: ifanyonebuildsit.com/1