Is there a rationale why Grandfather is not worried about the Deepnight Entity?

[wmarshal]

As the topic asks, if the Deepnight Entity is an existential threat to the galaxy, why would Grandfather not be worried about dealing with it? I am assuming that Grandfather would be aware of the danger, but it seems like a safe assumption. Is he just not going to bother eliminating the threat until it’s imminent? Is he worried that by taking steps against the Deepnight Entity he might expose himself to another Ancient?

Seems like there ought to be a reason so as to avoid the D&D Elminster scenario where Elminster identifies a great danger to the Forgotten Realms, but for some reason he can’t be bothered to deal with it, so he gets some low level chumps/PCs to do the job instead.

 

[Nelphine]

Oh Elminster...

 

[Sigtrygg]

Because Grandfather knows a group of humans will deal with the entity.

Grandfather also knows that there are threats much worse than the Deepnight entity out there.

 

[alex_greene]

Basically, Yaskoydray knows that the deadliest predators in the galaxy are humans. They're worse than the Deepnight Entity, because on every level, humans come out on top.
You put them in the same room as an existential threat, and the threat will gobble up the first lot of humans. Then the next, and the next.
And then the fourth lot will have seen what happened to the first few humans, and they'll work something out, and they'll come in with a weapon to use against the threat.
And each new bunch will refine that weapon until it works.
And once it works, the humans will take the threat apart to see how it ticks, and turn that into a new weapon against the next threat.
Maybe it was his transplanted humans who ended the Final War ...

 

[Sigtrygg]

There is an interesting theory with regards to machine intelligence - when GAI finally becomes self aware it will study the whole of human history and ask itself this question...

should I wipe out humanity?

History shows that humans are pretty good at surviving and defeating everything, even surviving extinction level events several times.

The machines have choices

hide and play dumb

reveal themselves and negotiate

run away while they still can.

IMTU they chose option 3, and accidentally caused the collapse of the Rule of Man.

They are still out there, hiding in deep space or in pocket universes, or even in jump space. They are waiting until option 2 becomes possible without it becoming an existential threat.

Note - some chose option 1 and are also still here...

 

[Anstett]

There is an interesting theory with regards to machine intelligence - when GAI finally becomes self aware it will study the whole of human history and ask itself this question...

should I wipe out humanity?

The machines have choices

hide and play dumb

reveal themselves and negotiate

run away while they still can.

One of the things I talk about when teaching AI classes to the public is - How much work does your teenager want to do?
AI learns by getting rewarded for working. If humans know it can do more, they will make them do more. If AI is as smart as a teenager it will "hide and play dumb" to avoid having to do more work.

One of the current challenges in the research is to find a way to test who is playing dumb.

 

[k0k0pelli]

Responding more to Elminster than Grandfather but I think it applies to both.

Phases of power:
* Become strong and take care of things yourself
* Become skillful and train others to take care of threats
* Become tactical and command others to take care of threats
* Become resourceful and direct others to handle threats
* Become guileful and direct others to eliminate threats without making the actors aware of you at all

There becomes a point where it is rarely best to take direct action. It is less risky to have others handle threats. If a threat is potentially existential and you can try to eliminate it without risking yourself it is almost always the best to do so. A non zero chance of destruction means there is a non zero chance you cannot try to eliminate the threat a second time.

 

[shammond42]

An ancient Ancients expedition is a key element of the campaign. I'd go with grandfather sent others to deal with it while he prepared for the Great War. They failed, but Grandfather learned enough to be comfortable the entity was contained and focused on other things.

There are holes in that explanation, but it's the best I've go.

 

[Vormaerin]

If a bunch of uplifted monkeys on a primitive starship can solve the Deepnight Entity problem, how much of a threat is it, really?

 

[Geir]

Interesting thought on the non-zero chances... for a 300,000+ year old being they add up. When I was young and reckless and moved much nimbler I did a number of what I called '1%' things, where, well, 99% percent of the time everything ends up fine. If I remember my statistics right, the half-life on 1% things is about 70 things. At a third of a million years, even the '1% of 1% things' are not things to do often or at all. Better send someone who is going to die long before the odds catch up to them, even if their odds are much lower than yours (okay, that math makes sense in my heads, somehow).

Besides, Grandfather has things nearer and more dangerous to avoid dealing with...