Ok, but regardless of your feelings about AI, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t wish that nuclear weapons had never been invented. (Well, maybe it ended the combat between the US and Japan faster…, and maybe prevented the Cold War from becoming a hot war, but still, is that really worth the constant looming threat of nuclear Armageddon?)

If only having a curious mind would imply having a far-sighted and responsible one.

It normally does. That's why I can consider that nuclear weapons might have better uses in the future, presently unknown to us, and you can't.

Nuclear weapons could have a better use in the future? Pray tell, what exactly have you envisioned here?

My point is that you don't know what the future holds, but it's better to know more than less. My point is valid even if I can't provide examples.

However, if you ask me to, I can imagine using those weapons against meteors headeds for Earth, or possibly aliens. We don't know.

Phew, I never thought that "it's better to know more than less" would be controversial on HN.

Lack of imagination often results in preconceived answers, to open ended questions.

The curious child takes apart an animal and learns surgery. The animal, however, is nonetheless killed.

I have a curious mind too but I don't go cutting up neighbourhood cats to see what they look like on the inside.

If you're curious about that, are you curious about hypotheses like the Great Filter (Fermi paradox), and are you concerned that certain technologies could actually function as the filter?

I mean, what if the nuclear bomb actually did burn up the atmosphere? What if AI does turn into a runaway entity that eventually functions to serve its own purposes and comes to see humans the same way we see ants: as a sort of indifferent presence that's in the way of its goals?

There is a sort of people who read 1984 and blame the protagonist for being an idiot who called the fire upon himself, or still don't get what's wrong with ice9 and people behind it when turning the last page of Cat's Craddle.

And a sort of people who sympathize Winston and blame Felix Hoenikker, but still fail to see any parallels between "fiction" and life.

I don't know for certain if, when you say "a sort of people", you're referring to me, but... The sort of people you're describing sound like fascists, which is the opposite of me.

We're on the same side then, even if our opinions on the subject differ. Please take no offence.

I mean sure. I'm not saying "lets be wreckless". I'm saying "lets understand everything about everything, more rather than less".

I suppose I'd rather see us understand nuclear weapons without vaporizing civilians and causing an arms race. I'm not claiming to have a solution to preventing the arms race aspect of technology, but all the same: I'd rather these weapons weren't built.