Re: AI done here despite cheap shots

From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Tue Mar 14 2000 - 23:44:59 MST


At 08:04 PM 14/03/00 -0800, Robert B. wrote:

> > I haven't seen
> > anyone cluey like Moravec or Vinge rush to adopt his schemata, although
> > they both know about his site.)
>
>That is interesting information.

No, it just follows from the fact that they each have a copy of a book
dedicated to them that highlights some of Eliezer's early position
statements and cites his urls. As it happens, I've also asked Vernor
directly for his opinion of Eli's schemata, and he replied quite recently
(as I mentioned privately to Eliezer) that he hadn't yet looked at the
relevant pages. I can't recall whether Hans has commented specifically on
this, but I get the strong impression that he hasn't been in touch with
Eliezer, as one might expect if he were enthusiastic. (I do know that Hans
has read THE SPIKE, since he tells me it had some small impact on his final
revisions of ROBOT.) Dr Hanson, of course, can speak for himself.

At 10:01 PM 14/03/00 -0600, Eli wrote:

>Yes, I'm annoyed.

You have no reason to be. I must stress that what I wrote was not--and was
not meant to be read as--any kind of denigration of Eli or his efforts, but
was a response to an off-hand comment by someone else. (Perhaps my jokey
subject head lent itself to misreading; it was meant lightheartedly, after
the manner of, you know, Buffy and the gang). I'm prepared to take
Eliezer's case far more seriously than, say, any of us (I assume) take the
Lorrey Drive, because its goal does not fly in the face of what we know to
be true and its advocate is one exceptionally smart puppy.

And as Eli suggests in his own comment (`estimates of what I can do will
have to depend on your own ability to read _Coding_ et. al.'), and as I
freely declared in my original note, I'm certainly incompetent to gauge the
worth of any programmer's code or project design. Let's not jump the gun,
is all. (Oh no, I said the g*n word.)

Damien [an early member in good standing of Eliezer's fan club]



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