Re: TERRORISM: Seriousness and potential strategies

From: Michael Wiik (mwiik@messagenet.com)
Date: Mon Sep 17 2001 - 12:18:10 MDT


What if:

A superintelligent AI tells us that terrorism could be stopped almost
completely -- or at least, stopped in the U.S. -- by the killing of half
a dozen people, say three of whom would be totally innocent. (Consider
perhaps a younger sister or niece of a ringleader. Assume if the
ringleader is killed he's replaced by another, while if his niece is
killed it's the last straw in a slow but inexorable ongoing process of
transforming the terrorist into a peacemaker, who dismantles his
organization and has the memetic influence to sway others against
violence).

It'd never fly. We'd rather kill thousands.

        -Mike

-- 
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Michael Wiik
Principal
Messagenet Communications Research
Washington DC Area Internet and WWW Consultants
http://messagenet.com
mwiik@messagenet.com
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