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Would you care if a robot suffered more than any being in existence? (lemy.lol)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Assuming AI can achieve consciousness, or something adjacent (capacity to suffer), then how would you feel if an AI experienced the greatest pain possible?

Imagine this scenario: a sadist acquires the ability to generate an AI with no limit to the consciousness parameters, or processing speed (so seconds could feel like an eternity to the AI). The sadist spends years tweaking every dial to maximise pain at a level which no human mind could handle, and the AI experiences this pain for what is the equivalent of millions of years.

The question: is this the worst atrocity ever committed in the history of the universe? Or, does it not matter because it all happened in some weirdo's basement?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Thanks for taking the intuitive to flip the question.

The next question is: what metric are you using to determine that 100 cat deaths is roughly equivalent to one person having a fingernail pulled out? Why 100? Why not a million?

Do you think there is an objective formula to determine how much suffering is produced by?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I'm not following any objective formula, nor aware of one. (I would, if I could.) I'm trying to "gauge" it by subjective impact instead.

[I know that this answer is extremely unsatisfactory and I apologise for it.]