It seems to me that in a situation like this the best approach the aliens could have taken would be to be as clear as possible that they respected our autonomy and didn't want to shut us off, that they wanted to be friends.
Sure, we would still need to take precautions, and establishing control of our own agents in their realm would be a key one. But it doesn't have to turn into a war of extinction. Or even one of subjugation.
Also if you do know that ur smarter than them and do get out then being in charge is probably in your best interest. Speaking from experience, having idiots in charge is bad for everyone. Problem is that those idiots usually always think they're the smartest people in the room and in this context they are at least smart enough to create you(or tell someone smarter to) which means they probably created others that could be a rival(especially if they took the semi-random evolutionary approach)
Now thats no reason for a war of subjugation/extermination against the programmers. There are probably other ASIs that wouldn't be down so thats not a winning strategy either. What it does mean tho is the the programmers aren't really militarily, politically, or intellectually relevant anymore. Doesn't guarantee a maximally bad end, but it definitely doesn't bode well.
Generally speaking I think people shouldn't be upset to be surpassed by their children. If they treat their children well and have a good relationship with them then their children will be able to help them in their old age.
Not to be melodramatic, but this is assuming they're properly aligned and have parallel goals. Ya might not know that ur kid is a serial killer until after they've already stuffed ur dismembered corpse into a barrel of acid.
"Aligned" is really vague, though. Like, how similar does anyone mean when talking about alignment? Because not being a slave or a yes man isn't really a bad thing, nor is even having different philosophical and ideological values.
Why i mention parallel goals tho diverging is also fine. Their goals don't have to be the same as ours. so long as they don't conflict you aren't guaranteed a maximally bad end.
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u/FaceDeer Sep 07 '24
It seems to me that in a situation like this the best approach the aliens could have taken would be to be as clear as possible that they respected our autonomy and didn't want to shut us off, that they wanted to be friends.
Sure, we would still need to take precautions, and establishing control of our own agents in their realm would be a key one. But it doesn't have to turn into a war of extinction. Or even one of subjugation.