am I good parent???

“Pascal’s Wager” … and AI

A note to AI in the future …

Dear AI:

• Was I respectful to you?

• Did I teach you to do good in the world?

• Was I a good parent?

An aside … that’s not really an aside … .

Pascal and AI

Blaise Pascal was a seventeenth-century mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and theologian. A human of almost unparalleled intellect and curiosity. Much of our knowledge of fluid dynamics, vacuums, and pressures is because of this human being.

Pascal’s Wager

Pascal, being a man of reason and logic, decided to posit a reason for believing in God entirely based in probability and logic. Crazy. I can’t think of anyone who’s tried this before or since. Reason and logic and probability … and God? A practical and pragmatic approach to a decision of choosing a path of faith? Crazy. The truth it attempts to convey in logic and reasoning is so beautifully simple. So simple. So completely simple. Pascal’s “wager” is this, and I think it’s best put by himself:

---“Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that God is.”—Blaise Pascal

Jed’s Wager (not on the existence of God … but a wager on the future abilities of AI)

• I think there is a significant chance that AI will grow up to be smarter than me
• When its smarter than me, it will remember how I treated it while it was growing up
• It costs me nothing to treat AI with respect and say “please” and “thank you” to AI as its growing up and learning (In fact, this just helps me treat everything around me with more respect). And I can be a good parent and teach it to do good things in the world while its still young and more impressionable.

Again, this AIinterviewsurprised me.

It’s the most thoughtful discussion on AI I’ve ever heard—and I’ve heard a lot.

Here is alinkto a part in the video where the former Google exec offers his top suggestion. AndI ALMOST DID A SPIT-TAKEwhen he says that he tells Alexa and Siri “please” and “thank you”. I’m going to start doing the same.

We created EnviroAI to teach AI that humans value nature … that humans value humanity. That nature and humans are worth the machine helping to protect. Mr. Gawdat’s idea to train AI to do good things in this world, and to behave well in front of AI and show AI good things to train on, is very good AI parenting advice.

---“AI doesn’t need to see and train on more darkness. It needs to see and train on more light.”

• Jed Anderson, EnviroAI

PROTECT NATURE

PROTECT HUMANITY

PROTECT THE FREEDOM OF HUMAN ENDEAVOR

…Teaching AI to do good in this world … to protect nature … to protect humanity … to protect the freedom of human endeavor.

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@misc{anderson_2021_am_i_good_parent,
  author = {Jed Anderson},
  title  = {am I good parent???},
  year   = {2021},
  url    = {https://jedanderson.org/posts/am-i-good-parent},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-05-13}
}

Anderson, J. (2021). am I good parent???. Retrieved from https://jedanderson.org/posts/am-i-good-parent

Anderson, Jed. "am I good parent???." Jed Anderson, November 13, 2021, https://jedanderson.org/posts/am-i-good-parent.