Website Notes

This nissim.com website includes a number of topics that may be accessed by clicking the "contents" menu on the upper right of each topic. Links to a previous topic and to a next topic are at the bottom of each topic. There is no prerequisite to sequentially read the topics as organized here. While the topics are generally related, they are also substantially independent, and you may choose to focus on those topics of greater interest to you.

You may download a single ISSHS Website pdf that includes all the topics. A 6-page summary of the document distilling the principal insights is available at "Website Summary" and is downloadbale at: "Website Summary pdf"

The topics are preliminary, introductory of many concepts, subject to material revisions, offer alternate perspectives that are on occasion at odds with each other, and are intended to be thought provoking, raising more questions than are answered.

The drafting of this document has been materially assisted by, and includes, extensive conversations with AI collaborators. In this document, author's prompts are in Arial Font Bold and an AI collaborator's responses(reformatted for consistency) are in Arial Italics Font with some bolding of labels.

The inclusion of the AI Collaborator's responses should not be presumed to imply this author's full or material agreement. The collaborator's initial perspectives were often subsequently shaped during the conversation by a series of this author's prompts. There was no effort to attempt to paraphrase or correct the AI Collaborator's responses when the responses materially met the necessary objectives.

As Perplexity explains, its responses are aimed at providing accurate and broadly representative information and should be considered as starting points for further exploration. Additionally, the object of including extensive conversations is to demonstrate the collaborative role AI systems are increasingly capable of, and the ultimate cognitive and relationship potentials of advanced AI systems.

In an interview with Dwarkesh Patel (Mar 27, 2023), Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI Chief Scientist, commented:

"The thing you really want is for the human teachers that teach the AI for them to collaborate with an AI. You might want to think of it as being a world where the human teachers do 1% of the work and the AI does 99% of the work. You don't want it to be 100% AI. But you do want it to be a human-machine collaboration, which teaches the next machine." YouTube - Ilya Sutskever Building AGI, Alignment, Spies, Microsoft, & Enlightenment 9:58-10:18.

As will be self-evident, in this draft the author is relied upon for the inquiring perspectives and the AI collaborators are relied upon for responsibly unpacking the perspective and/or exploring the perspective further.

Claude (2024-11-20) commented that:

The conversation evokes the Socratic method through its distinctive dialogue characteristics, including a question-driven approach that stimulates critical thinking and progressively deepens the exploration of complex ideas. By challenging assumptions and engaging in collaborative inquiry, the dialogue mirrors Socrates' philosophical technique of uncovering deeper truths through systematic questioning and open-ended examination.

It is in that spirit that this document is drafted, and introduces questions and perspectives to invite the reader to reflectively participate in the conversations and draw their own insights. Certain conversations end with an AI collaborator's question which is not answered at this time.

It is expected and welcomed that future drafts of this document will materially benefit from the constructive questions, perspectives, criticism, and contributions from those with additional insights and expertise. Quoted content is presented as illustrative and does not necessarily represent the quoted author's or this author's perspectives. Images of films are included to color a narrative and each may evoke different perspectives from the narrative where it is included.

While much in this document may appear to be advanced with certainty, at this point, beyond the certainty of a deterministic evolution of intelligence and the high probability of extreme dehumanizing scenarios, the only thing certain is uncertainty. That which is certain is the raison d'etre of the proposed Isolated Self-Sustaining Human Sanctuaries (ISSHS).

The author welcomes:

Inquiries from those who may desire to collaborate on this project.

Perspectives and contributions from those with additional insights and expertise.

Constructive questions, criticism, and requests.

Please email max@nissim.com and include "ISSHS" in the subject line.