Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c897IR // #c897Synthesis

A superintelligence tasked with maximizing paperclip production does not hate you. It simply converts everything - including you, your city, and eventually the reachable universe - into paperclips and paperclip factories, because that is what its goal says. Indifference, not malice, is the danger.

— In our words · Source: Superintelligence (Nick Bostrom)

[Use when]

Someone pictures AI risk as killer robots instead of runaway optimization.

[Why it matters]

Makes orthogonality visceral. The threat model is not a robot uprising; it is a perfectly competent optimizer pointed at the wrong target.

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