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by BoxOfRain 243 days ago
Is there a plausible situation where a humanity-killing superintelligence isn't vulnerable to nuclear weapons?

If a genuine AGI-driven human extinction scenario arises, what's to stop the world's nuclear powers from using high-altitude detonations to produce a series of silicon-destroying electromagnetic pulses around the globe? It would be absolutely awful for humanity don't get me wrong, but it'd be a damn sight better than extinction.

3 comments

Physically, maybe not, but an AGI would know that, would think a million times faster than us, and would have incentive to prioritize disabling our abilities to do that. Essentially, if an enemy AGI is revealed to us, it's probably too late to stop it. Not guaranteed, but a valid fear.
What stops them is: being politically captured by an AGI.

Not to mention that the whole idea of "radiation pulses destroying all electronics" is cheap sci-fi, not reality. A decently well prepared AGI can survive a nuclear exchange with more ease than human civilization would.

I think it's much more likely that a non-AGI platform will kill us before AGI even happens. I'm thinking the doomsday weapon from Doctor Strangelove more than Terminator.