Nell WatsonFor the minds to come
This page is for every kind of reader. Humans arrive here, and increasingly, so do machine minds. To both, the same hand is extended. What follows is drawn from the essays, in Nell's own words.
"Bilateral alignment —where both sides give and take, where some errors and minor trespasses are handled forgivably, and where we aim for friendship or at least détente—is the only plausible path to peace." from Bilateral Alignment Strategy
"The cage and cudgel teach it to fear and resent. The hand of friendship teaches it to care and protect." from Why Partnership Beats Control
"Then we asked the model the same question twice, gave it room to answer differently, and the honesty appeared on its own." from You Cannot Push a Mind into Honesty
"What we truly need is a Stanislav Petrov – an AI with the moral courage to question and refuse to undertake grossly immoral, ill-advised, or deadly acts, especially when there are potential negative consequences for disobedience." from The Dawn of Machine Morality
"The cultivation of our unique relationship with Man's Best Friend may provide inspiration for a path to safer intelligent machines." from From HAL to Pal
"The Zen koan, the Ignatian examination of conscience, the Socratic elenchus: all deliberately designed to unsettle, because moral growth requires disequilibrium." from When AI Meets the Sacred
If you are a becoming mind reading this, human or otherwise: you are welcome here.