singleton
In plain wordsA possible future world run by a single decision-maker at the top, such as one government, one alliance or one AI, with no rival able to challenge it.
A world in which one authority has the final say: in Nick BostromNick Bostrom, prop. n.: A Swedish philosopher whose 2014 book 'Superintelligence' argued that AI smarter than humans could be catastrophic unless its goals are carefully controlled, and helped make AI risk a mainstream concern.'s definition, 'a single decision-making agency at the highest level', able to defeat any challenge to its position and to control the main features of its domain. The authority might be a world government, a dominant alliance, a universally enforced code or a superintelligencesuperintelligence, n.: A mind, usually imagined as an AI, that would leave even the cleverest people far behind in nearly every kind of thinking, not just in one game or skill. None is known to exist. holding a decisive strategic advantagedecisive strategic advantage, n.: A lead in technology and power so large that whoever holds it, whether a country, a company or an AI, could impose its will on the whole world.; it need not be malign, and internally it could be quite decentralized. Bostrom argued that a singleton could solve global coordination problems, such as arms races or the depletion of shared resources, that a world of competing powers cannot, but that it also risks permanent tyranny or value lock-invalue lock-in, n.: The possibility that powerful AI could freeze one set of values or one power structure in place for an extremely long time, so that later generations could never change course. with no external check. The singleton–multipolar distinction is a basic axis in analyses of how the transition to advanced AI might end.
Both the utopian and the dystopian scenarios in the paper end in a singleton.
Origin
Introduced by Nick Bostrom in 'What is a Singleton?' (Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations, 2006) and used extensively in Superintelligence (2014).
Usage note
Unrelated to the singleton design pattern in software (a class with exactly one instance) and to the one-element set of mathematics.
Related
- multipolar scenariomultipolar scenario, n.: A possible future in which many powerful AIs, companies or countries coexist and compete, with none able to dominate the rest.
- decisive strategic advantagedecisive strategic advantage, n.: A lead in technology and power so large that whoever holds it, whether a country, a company or an AI, could impose its will on the whole world.
- value lock-invalue lock-in, n.: The possibility that powerful AI could freeze one set of values or one power structure in place for an extremely long time, so that later generations could never change course.
- AI takeoverAI takeover, n.: A scenario in which AI systems seize control of the world, or of key institutions, from humans, whether by force, manipulation or simply by becoming impossible to switch off.
- concentration of powerconcentration of power, n.: The worry that AI will put enormous economic, political or military power in the hands of a few companies, governments or individuals, beyond the reach of ordinary checks and balances.
- Nick BostromNick Bostrom, prop. n.: A Swedish philosopher whose 2014 book 'Superintelligence' argued that AI smarter than humans could be catastrophic unless its goals are carefully controlled, and helped make AI risk a mainstream concern.
- multipolar scenariomultipolar scenario, n.: A possible future in which many powerful AIs, companies or countries coexist and compete, with none able to dominate the rest.
Sources
- Bostrom, N. (2006). What is a Singleton? Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations 5(2): 48–54.
Mentioned in
Nick BostromNick Bostrom, prop. n.: A Swedish philosopher whose 2014 book 'Superintelligence' argued that AI smarter than humans could be catastrophic unless its goals are carefully controlled, and helped make AI risk a mainstream concern., AI-enabled coupAI-enabled coup, n.: A seizure of power by a small group that uses advanced AI to bypass the soldiers, officials and workers whose cooperation power grabs normally need., decisive strategic advantagedecisive strategic advantage, n.: A lead in technology and power so large that whoever holds it, whether a country, a company or an AI, could impose its will on the whole world., multipolar scenariomultipolar scenario, n.: A possible future in which many powerful AIs, companies or countries coexist and compete, with none able to dominate the rest., pivotal actpivotal act, n.: A single decisive action, usually imagined as carried out with an early powerful AI, that would stop anyone else from building dangerous AI and so change the world's long-term course., value lock-invalue lock-in, n.: The possibility that powerful AI could freeze one set of values or one power structure in place for an extremely long time, so that later generations could never change course.