Infinity Born Quotes

“hour—comparable”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“And, yes, it was said that the road to hell was paved with good intentions. But so was the road to heaven.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“Fifteen years ago, Elon Musk calculated that the probability we’re living our lives in base reality, rather than a simulation, was infinitesimally small.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“levels that occurred deep within forests.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“Perhaps this was one of the reasons for her reticence. She knew that he was keeping a huge part of his life from her.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“Because of a steel shortage brought about by war preparations”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“no money could ever be made from it, only lost.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“EXCERPT: In an interview Zuckerberg admitted he was frustrated by people who “fear-monger” about artificial intelligence. Stephen Hawking has raised concerns over AI, saying it has the potential to wipe out the human race. “Once machines reach a critical stage of being able to evolve themselves we cannot predict whether their goals will be the same as ours. AI has the potential to evolve faster than the human race.” Despite using AI in Tesla cars, Elon Musk also has similar fears, but their concerns fall on deaf ears with Zuckerberg.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“How virtual assistants like Echo, Google Home, and Siri had become so uncannily good that they seemed to be able to read minds.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“Five thousand! The biggest loss since 9/11.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“could write forever on the many dangers of ASI and the difficulty of reining in a superior intelligence. The arguments used in Infinity Born, such as perverse instantiation, are all real and have been used by prominent scientists (as have many other arguments that I didn’t include). For those of you interested in a very thorough, complex, and scholarly treatment of the subject matter, I would recommend the book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014) by Nick Bostrom, a Professor at Oxford. The book I found most useful in researching this novel is entitled, Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the end of the Human Era (James Barrat, 2013). This described the “God in a box” experiment detailed in the novel, for example, and provided a fascinating, easy-to-read perspective on ASI, at least on the fear-mongering side of the debate. I’ve included a few quotes from this book that I thought were relevant to Infinity Born. Page 59—First, there are too many players in the AGI sweepstakes. Too many organizations in too many countries are working on AGI and AGI-related technology for them all to agree to mothball their projects until Friendly AI is created, or to include in their code a formal friendliness module, if one could be made. Page 61—But what if there is some kind of category shift once something becomes a thousand times smarter than we are, and we just can’t see it from here? For example, we share a lot of DNA with flatworms. But would we be invested in their goals and morals even if we discovered that many millions of years ago flatworms had created us, and given us their values? After we got over the initial surprise, wouldn’t we just do whatever we wanted? Page 86—Shall we build our robot replacement or not? On this, de Garis is clear. “Humans should not stand in the way of a higher form of evolution. These machines are godlike. It is human destiny to create them.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“She was especially interested in finding a way to rule in, or rule out, the existence of a soul. Above all else, this was the most fundamental question posed by the capabilities her father’s technology made possible. His results so far seemed to indicate that one didn’t exist. But absence of proof was not the same as proof of absence.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“Maybe even God himself needed companionship, needed something outside of himself. Perhaps he was trapped in his own head, like I am, and finally found his salvation through the creation of the universe and sentient life.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“The great martial artist Bruce Lee had once commented, “If someone comes at you with a sword, run if you can. Kung Fu doesn’t always work.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble, When you’re perfect in every way. I can’t wait to look in the mirror, Cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me. I must be a hell of a man. Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble, But I’m doing the best that I can.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“I would define qualia as subjective experiences, sensations,” he replied, “that only conscious entities seem to be able to have. How a thing seems. How it feels. How it affects a consciousness emotionally and spiritually. The pain of a toothache. The beauty of a sunset. The taste of wine.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“The scenario you just experienced was borrowed from a very old science fiction story,” replied Dr. Brennan. “The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin. Relatively short, but considered a classic. Different”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“Extraordinary breakthroughs require extraordinary perseverance.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“you’re right. You’re no hero if your act of bravery only makes things worse.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“Then we don’t deserve to be preserved,”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“so was the road to heaven.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“We’re our own worst enemy.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“kinetic round would bring massive death and destruction to Turlock,”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“artificial lantern”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“he had no time to waste. He guessed he had been out for as long as a few”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“DARPA, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“Computers, algorithms, the Internet—they’re not just the biggest component of our lives and economy. They’ve become our lives and economy.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“What’s more likely, that someone found a way to hack this unhackable system? Or that Isaac Jordan willingly killed thousands of people?”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“The more I immerse myself in science and technology, the greater my need to retreat back to nature. I find it easier to contemplate life and philosophy surrounded by this environment. Our minds may have allowed us to transcend our environment, but our DNA still knows we were built to live in nature. Trees are still more soothing than steel and cement, despite the lack of a purely intellectual argument as to why this should be so.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born

“If you’re going through hell . . . keep going.”
― Douglas E. Richards, Infinity Born