Universal Paperclips

A warning to fellow HNers that are not familiar with universal paperclips. Please don’t click the link as it will create a black time hole that will start absorbing your time and reduce your productivity. Be warned that this isn’t a naive lazy clicker game, it’s an instrument of destruction from the future, created by our paperclip overlords :-)

It's a really great game that is best approached without too many spoilers. Know that the game becomes more complex and engaging as it goes on. There is a definite end and takes about 5 hours to complete if played well. [spoiler] It's the "Paperclip maximizer" thought experiment put into game form and you play as the AI. The game is divided into roughly three stages. The first you are the AI for some company and are tasked with producing…

It is a fantastic game. Speed runners have done it in 1:40:05, first runs can take 8 - 12 hours or more. A first run report, with advice but no spoilers https://fogknife.com/2017-10-11-i-played-universal-paperclip... Some interviews with the designer, and previous postings: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Other great idle/clicker/growth games include: * Drowning in Problems: http://game.notch.net/drowning/# * Derivative Clicker: https://gzgreg.github.io/DerivativeClicker/ * 2nd…

The paperclip maximizer is a thought experiment described by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2003. It illustrates the existential risk that an artificial general intelligence may pose to human beings when it is programmed to pursue even seemingly harmless goals and the necessity of incorporating machine ethics into artificial intelligence design. The scenario describes an advanced artificial intelligence tasked with manufacturing paperclips. If such a machine were not programmed to value human life, given…