<p>From a text (1) about AI and, in particular, ASI (Artificial Superintelligence)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A guinea pig is a mammal and on some biological level, I feel a connection to it—but a spider is an <em>insect</em>, with an <em>insect brain</em>, and I feel almost no connection to it. The <em>alien</em>-ness of a tarantula is what gives me the willies. To test this and remove other factors, if there are two guinea pigs, one normal one and one with the mind of a tarantula, I would feel <em>much</em> less comfortable holding the latter guinea pig, even if I knew neither would hurt me.</p>
<p>Now imagine that you made a spider much, much smarter—so much so that it far surpassed human intelligence? Would it then become familiar to us and feel human emotions like empathy and humor and love? No, it wouldn’t, because there’s no reason becoming smarter would make it <em>more human</em>—it would be incredibly smart but also still <em>fundamentally a spider</em> in its core inner workings. I find this unbelievably creepy. I would <em>not</em> want to spend time with a superintelligent spider. Would you??</p>
<p>When we’re talking about ASI, the same concept applies—it would become superintelligent, but it would be no more <em>human</em> than your laptop is. It would be totally alien to us—in fact, by not being biology at all, it would be <em>more</em> alien than the smart tarantula.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It makes the argument that because a spider is an insect and a human is not, a superintelligent spider wouldn't be more humanlike than a normal spider. Is this true?</p>
<p>If the spider was superintelligent, it would understand what it means to be humanlike, and if it wanted, it could definitely atleast <em>act</em> more humanlike, but I dont know whether it would <em>want</em> to act more humanlike, since it's a spider.</p>
<p>For example, it would understand what love means, but why would it not be able to love? What exactly in its brain is stopping itself from being able to love?</p>
<p>(1) <a href="https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-26T23:41:21.083Z
Welcome kyopa. What you have here is an unanswerable question about a  super-intelligent spider, but the spider doesn't exist, it's just a thought experiment. Any reasoning based on suppositions about what the spider can and can't do are unable to be verified by experimental data - not even by asking it what it thinks. Interesting commercial site you link to, but It doesn't lend credibility to the article that states that spiders are insects (they're arachnids). Voting to close as not framed in psychology or neuroscience.
Jiminy Cricket.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-28T06:13:00.953Z
I converted your screenshot into a blockquote as text as images is discouraged https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/320052/why-are-images-of-text-code-and-mathematical-expressions-discouraged
Chris Rogers
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-29T20:43:52.930Z
I agree that this question is opinion-based as-is and am closing it as such.  However, if you have a question that could be answered using available evidence, then feel free to edit and vote to reopen - eg, "Do survey respondents view a super-intelligent spider as more or no more human-like than a regular spider?"
Arnon Weinberg
<emotion><brain><artificial-intelligence>
Could a superintelligent spider be more human like than a normal spider? (or any other animal)
kyopa
# Could a superintelligent spider be more human like than a normal spider? (or any other animal)

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-06-26)

From a text (1) about AI and, in particular, ASI (Artificial Superintelligence)

> A guinea pig is a mammal and on some biological level, I feel a connection to it—but a spider is an *insect*, with an *insect brain*, and I feel almost no connection to it. The *alien*-ness of a tarantula is what gives me the willies. To test this and remove other factors, if there are two guinea pigs, one normal one and one with the mind of a tarantula, I would feel *much* less comfortable holding the latter guinea pig, even if I knew neither would hurt me.
>
> Now imagine that you made a spider much, much smarter—so much so that it far surpassed human intelligence? Would it then become familiar to us and feel human emotions like empathy and humor and love? No, it wouldn’t, because there’s no reason becoming smarter would make it *more human*—it would be incredibly smart but also still *fundamentally a spider* in its core inner workings. I find this unbelievably creepy. I would *not* want to spend time with a superintelligent spider. Would you??
>
> When we’re talking about ASI, the same concept applies—it would become superintelligent, but it would be no more *human* than your laptop is. It would be totally alien to us—in fact, by not being biology at all, it would be *more* alien than the smart tarantula.

It makes the argument that because a spider is an insect and a human is not, a superintelligent spider wouldn't be more humanlike than a normal spider. Is this true?

If the spider was superintelligent, it would understand what it means to be humanlike, and if it wanted, it could definitely atleast *act* more humanlike, but I dont know whether it would *want* to act more humanlike, since it's a spider.

For example, it would understand what love means, but why would it not be able to love? What exactly in its brain is stopping itself from being able to love?

(1) <https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html>

**Tags:** emotion, brain, artificial-intelligence

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Welcome username_0. What you have here is an unanswerable question about a  super-intelligent spider, but the spider doesn't exist, it's just a thought experiment. Any reasoning based on suppositions about what the spider can and can't do are unable to be verified by experimental data - not even by asking it what it thinks. Interesting commercial site you link to, but It doesn't lend credibility to the article that states that spiders are insects (they're arachnids). Voting to close as not framed in psychology or neuroscience.  
> **username_2**: I converted your screenshot into a blockquote as text as images is discouraged https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/320052/why-are-images-of-text-code-and-mathematical-expressions-discouraged  
> **username_3**: I agree that this question is opinion-based as-is and am closing it as such.  However, if you have a question that could be answered using available evidence, then feel free to edit and vote to reopen - eg, "Do survey respondents view a super-intelligent spider as more or no more human-like than a regular spider?"  

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