[drzaiusapelord]

>So far, the minds we know are quite intractable, and can be affected in very crude ways

Depends on your definition of crude. With a virtual mind, you probably have a good understanding of how things work and be able to edit them trivially. You can have a working mind without complete freedom or with limited capacities. Look at accident victims with brain damage who, say, can no longer do math or some other weird edge case. Its plausible to selectively edit minds but to also have an acceptable range of self-determinism.

>A "mind" and being able to "control its parameters" could very well be mutually exclusive.

Maybe with biological beings but there's no reason to assume that with artificial beings.

>We're many, many decades, if not a century or more, away from what people imagine when they say AI.

Except guys like Musk are helping move that number farther and farther into the future for their own selfish and short-term need (sell rockets to the government) via politically charged anti-AI propaganda. If AI research is chronically underfunded and feared, then it will never happen. Decades aren't too far out. Imagine if there was a big anti-computer backlash in the 1960s. We wouldn't have the toys we have today. Its important to keep a steady head and consider plausible scenarios and stop feeding the anti-AI bullshit of "OMG SLAVERY!!!"

As far as the economic argument goes, I still am very skeptical that AI would instantly run to a discredited and inefficient economic system (slavery). Its laughable to even think it plausible. It just shows how easy it is for guys like Musk to make people scared.

[pron]

> With a virtual mind, you probably have a good understanding of how things work and be able to edit them trivially

We can't explain the inner workings of deep-learning NNs today (hell, it seems like we can't even explain emergent behavior in a simulation game), so you think we'll be able to understand and edit a mind? All signs point to the contrary.

> but there's no reason to assume that with artificial beings.

But there is. We can't even fine tune complex software that's a far cry from AI.

> Except guys like Musk are helping move that number farther and farther into the future

I seriously doubt that even the venerable Elon Musk could have such a profound effect on the progress of humanity.

> It just shows how easy it is for guys like Musk to make people scared.

Oh, Elon Musk scares me, but that has absolutely nothing to do with AI.