From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Tue Jul 10 2001 - 19:01:35 MDT
Reason wrote:
>
> For me, this whole business is all cold and calculating risk analysis. Any
> and all risk associated with my ceasing to exist is unacceptable risk.
> Unknowns are risk. Therefore the only logical conclusion is to do all I can
> to reduce that risk.
Pedantry:
All risk is undesirable, but not all risk is unacceptable. Some risks are
necessary - for example, risks that can act as tools to reduce other
risks. If you regard all risk as unacceptable, without being able to
choose between large risks and small risks, you wind up in a fantasy world
where you don't have to take any risks. Shortly thereafter, you are
crushed by a still-hostile universe.
I'm pretty sure you meant to say "undesirable" instead of "unacceptable",
especially since you went on to correctly use the term "reduce" rather
than "eliminate".
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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