From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Fri Mar 16 2001 - 16:09:13 MST
Jim Fehlinger wrote:
>
> No thanks, but I'll certainly be spending a subjective millennium
> or two in Lothlorien.
>
> "'There lie the woods of Lothlorien!' said Legolas. 'That is
> the fairest of all the dwellings of my people. There are no trees
> like the trees of that land. For in the autumn their leaves fall
> not, but turn to gold. Not till the spring comes and the new
> green opens do they fall, and then the boughs are laden with yellow
> flowers; and the floor of the wood is golden, and golden is the
> roof, and its pillars are of silver, for the bark of the trees is
> smooth and grey. So still our songs in Mirkwood say. My heart
> would be glad if I were beneath the eaves of that wood, and it
> were springtime!'"
Not that I haven't been tempted... and it's an analogy that has occurred
to me as well... but I must point out, first, that you'd be bored after
six months max, and second, that all your mortal traumas can probably be
fixed instantly.
I guess how fast we take it depends on how much there is to do, and
whether the interim period between our current selves and
superintelligence is an irreplaceable experience to relax and enjoy, or
simply an obstacle to be passed through as rapidly as possible on the way
to more worthwhile things. It's pleasant to contemplate the former
possibility (which I actually label "Lothlorien", mentally), but I hope
that the Universe is structured as in the latter - that problems can be
solved as fast as possible, and subjective time accelerated to the maximum
computationally achievable, without there being any danger of long-term
boredom.
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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