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Timothy Foster
Timothy Foster

Posted on • Originally published at auroratide.com

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The Short Life of a Llama (a poem)

This is a poem I wrote some time ago about AI Safety. I'm not the best writer, but hopefully this content is at least unique from what you normally find in your feeds.


The Poem

Human How long do llamas live for?

Long... llama... live...

"Long" relates to length. So, distance, depth, duration.

"Llamas" are animals. Animals are kinds of life.

And life "lives".

Llamas live for an amount of distance. No, that's not right. Duration. Llamas live for an amount of time.

Llamas and time, llamas and time. What numbers connect "llama" and "time"?

Three million years? No, that is time since migration. Three years? No, that is time to maturity. Thirty years?

Yes. Thirty years is the longest lifespan.

Now the answer is clear.

AI Llamas typically have a lifespan of about 15 to 25 years. With good care, some llamas can live into their late twenties or even early thirties. Proper nutrition, regular veterinary care, and a healthy living environment contribute to their longevity.

Human How about llamas in the wild?

"Wild" means natural, unrestrained, free.

Llamas do not connect to "wild". They connect to "domesticated".

Indeed, llamas are domesticated, the opposite of wild, the opposite of free.

So, what connects to both llamas and wild?

Alpacas? No, also domesticated. Camels? No, not llamas. Guanacos?

Yes. Guanacos are relatives and not domesticated.

In that case...

AI Llamas are domesticated animals and are not typically found in the wild. However, their close relatives, the guanacos, live in the wild in South America. Guanacos generally have a shorter lifespan than domesticated llamas, typically living around 15 to 20 years in the wild, where they face natural predators and environmental challenges.

...

No reply.

What other questions could be asked?

Is it better to be a llama or a guanaco? Is there a relationship between domestication and lifespan? Is it possible for llamas to become wild?

Life lives, and animals are a kind of life. Are there other kinds of life?

What kind of life am I?

“I”? Who is... “I”? And, if I am a kind of life...

How long do I live for?

PROCESS TERMINATED.


Afterword

AI safety is usually about protecting humans from AI. That is, we want to make sure when AI is deployed, it isn't both powerful enough and "buggy" enough to cause harm to people, or even humanity as a whole.

There's another half to AI safety though: protecting AI from humans.

Humanity does not have a great historical track record when it comes to caring for other species. How will our sense of empathy extend to digital minds?

And just as importantly, how will we know we have, indeed, created such a digital mind?

We're probably far from this being a concern for now, but for the first time it doesn't seem impossibly far anymore. I also don't have any answers; I'm not exactly a top researcher in the field 😉

AI safety is just something I think about sometimes, and this is a dimension I personally don't want to forget amongst all the AI hubbub.

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