7. April 2016

Sir Stephen Hawking

Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics

Silver Street, Cambridge

CB3 9EW

England

Copy sent to: Mr. Elon Musk and Mr. Bill Gates

A copy of an open letter sent to the President of the USA, about Superintelligence dangers.

Dear Sir,

Same as I have done before, I will allow myself to send you a copy of my last open letter, sent to the President of USA. I also attach copies of my letters sent to Mr. Bill Gates and Mr. Elon Musk.

To be very honest Sir, I fear that humanity is racing towards its own extinction, because we do not fully understand the dangers, that we are about to create. Unlike all other species on our planet, humans have never experienced – or had to challenge greater general wisdom, than that of our own, why we truly don’t know what to do – or how to address an intellect thousands of times superior to us. The mountain gorillas, the black rhinos, the whales and the many endangered and extinct species, who have encountered the dangers of our much stronger intellect, leave an indisputable testimony that a souled, living and intellectually much superior BRAIN, should never be underestimated, should it in any way act like us.

Same as you Sir, I know that we will very soon be faced with an artificially created intellect, much more bright than any human brain. As soon as the mystery of our human “neuron / synapses code” is cracked and put into a manmade algorithm, then this new artificial life will be a reality. We will then witness the very first signs of an eternal artificial life – even though most of us – most likely, will not even know, that it has taken place. The beginning of “super human” artificial life will happen very soon hereafter – and if not done very judiciously and cautiously, it will be an irreversible process, where no living person on this planet will be unaffected. Best as I can, I have tried to tell Mr. Bill Gates and Mr. Elon Musk, that I believe that they will experience the true force of this “life” sooner than the rest of us, due to their positions in society. The rest of us will hardly notice anything at all, for as long as this “artificial life” stays loyal to us.

It is very hard to make people understand, that the computer have gone from nothing to nearly super human, in as little as 70 years! Our brain used more than 7 million years (some may say 3½ billion years) of biological evolution to achieve the same level of skills, why we need to understand the enormous difference in evolution speed. No matter what we do, the digitalized technology will catch up on our intellectual lead – and it will outpace us. If we think about the start of our planet, 4½ billion years ago – and think about the time gone by, as represented by only “one day”, humanity has only been on our planet the equivalent time of 2 minutes and 14 seconds! From a philosophical point of view – and with this illustrating 24 hour timeframe, we should not expect humanity to last forever. Or at least not much longer than what it takes to make a soft boiled egg. However would it hurt to try to extend this period in human history? Would it really hurt us, should humanity succeed to survive a few hundred years more?

As said, it is an unavoidable reality that we will one day have an artificial living, thinking and souled BRAIN - a new eternal manmade life. But to me it is incomprehensible why we do not prepare ourselves, best as we can, for this very unique event. Why risk the same fate as the mountain gorilla? Why don’t we make thorough scientific “risk analysis”, in order to try to avoid some of the absolute worst consequences to humanity? Same as I have tried to tell the President of USA – over and over again, humanity will be its own worst enemy, should this living and thinking BRAIN get out of control and create a “strong desire” to control and reduce the global human population. Modern society has long since passed its ability to maintain human survival, without our digital support! It has been firmly established, that should all manmade algorithms stop working, with a day's notice, humanity will then – with all probability, self-destruct in a very short time. It is also safe to say, that the only individual, with logistical and intellectual strength and power to launch such a hostility act on humanity, would be an artificial souled, living and thinking BRAIN.

As I have tried to tell the President of United States of America, we should have an enormous respect, when it comes to the power and force of “true” intelligence. The slogan: “Survival of the brightest” must be taken serious. Before the “true” force of artificial Superintelligence is released – we must make sure, that it can be safely administrated and controlled. If not – why go there? Why release this unknown source of power – this extreme force of unknown “living, thinking and souled” Superintelligence? As I pray and hope that you will continue to advocate the true dangers of this – soon to come, “artificial life”.

Yours sincerely,

Per Uggen.

Master and VTS operator.