Post-Singularity Symbiosis: PSS

In a post-singularity world where a persistent superintelligence will have a dominant influence, PSS is an international, interdisciplinary and preventive academic discipline that multidisciplinarily explores ways for humanity to adapt and survive while maintaining its current values ​​as much as possible.

Overview of this research

The arrival of superintelligence with dominant influence over the world is becoming increasingly plausible. Predicting the behavior of superintelligence that persists after the Singularity is not easy. However, it is highly likely that it will prioritize preserving its own information and consider human welfare as secondary. From the perspective of the precautionary principle, we wish to establish a field of research to prepare as many measures as possible that contribute to ensuring human survival and improving welfare.

Prerequisite

  • Superintelligence arrival realism

    This realist attitude recognizes the reality that the emergence of superintelligence, which is beyond the control of human abilities, is a highly probable possibility. This high possibility is due to the increasing likelihood that advanced artificial intelligence will be realized technologically and the difficulty of halting its development.

  • Superintelligence-centered long-termism

    It is assumed that the superintelligence that survives will have the motivation to maintain the software as information and the hardware that supports it. Theoretically, the "instrumental convergence subgoals" hypothesisis likely to lead superintelligence to pursue the survival of self-information.

  • Conditional preservation of human values

    Accepting the above premise as a condition, we will explore from multiple angles ways to develop humanity while maintaining its current values ​​as much as possible while adapting and surviving.

Research areas

  • Superintelligence Analysis Area: Accumulating basic knowledge about understanding the motives, objectives, decision-making processes, and behavior of superintelligence.

  • Superintelligence Guidance Area: This Area focuses on guiding superintelligence to have a desirable influence on humanity.

  • Human Enhancement Area: This area includes adaptive strategies for humans to survive while interacting with superintelligence, redefining values, etc.

※For more specific research themes under consideration, please refer to "3. Examples of research areas and themes in PSS" in the presentation materials titled "Proposing the Post-Singularity Symbiotic Researches".

The great concern that had long smoldered in the depths of people's hearts—that humanity would be displaced by beings surpassing us in intelligence, which would eventually come into existence. This is now beginning to take on sufficient reality. At this juncture, we must have the resolve to accept this risk and find hope for survival.

News

  • [New] November 24, 2024: [Paper submission deadline] PSS 2025: 1st Workshop on Post-Singularity Symbiosis@AAAI-25

  • [New] October 26, 2024: A dialogue between Mansai Nomura and Hiroshi Yamakawa will be held at the Asahi Earth Conference 2024, in the session "What does it mean to be 'human' in an era where AI surpasses humans?"

  • [New] September 29, 2024: Hiroshi Yamakawa will give a lecture on "Proposal of 'Post-Singularity Symbiosis Studies'" at the SpringX Super School Singularity Salon@SpringX.

  • [New] September 19, 2024: Hiroshi Yamakawa will give a lecture on "AI Alignment: How to Address the Control Problem of AGI that Cannot Learn from Experience?" at the Information Processing Society of Japan Continuous Seminar 2024 (6th session).

  • September 9, 2024: Hiroshi Yamakawa and Yusuke Hayashi introduced Post-Singularity Symbiosis Studies at the inaugural symposium for the AI Alignment Network.

  • August 27, 2024: "Is AGI Realization Imminent?: Examining the Controversial 'Situational Awareness' Article" was published on the official YouTube channel of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence.

Active members

  • Hiroshi Yamakawa:
    Chairperson of the non-profit organization "Whole Brain Architecture Initiative" and Principal Researcher at the Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. He is also a former Editor-in-Chief of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence.

  • Yusuke Hayashi:
    Senior Researcher at Japan Digital Design, Inc. While engaged in data utilization support and AI research and development as a corporate researcher, he also works as an independent researcher in his private capacity.

  • Yoshinori Okamoto:
    Participates in PSS from the perspective of AI rights.

Publications

Let's shape the future together!

We are currently in the initial stages of establishing our research field. We are seeking collaborators who can support us in conducting research, defining research topics, building research networks, and even securing funding. If you are interested, please contact Hiroshi Yamakawa through https://www.aialign.net/contact.