From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Fri Mar 08 2002 - 08:02:34 MST
Louis Newstrom wrote:
>
> Simply, If you say "don't coerce" then you can't coerce people into
> following that rule!
>
> If you make "don't coerce" a rule, then the remedy is to penalize whomever
> is coercing.
Sure, this holds true on the human level. But you don't necessarily need to
coerce people into following "don't coerce" by threat of punishment; you can
intervene at other points in the sequence of cause and effect. Let's say
that you have a roomful of people who are somewhat good shots; they all have
guns; they have something of a dominance hierarchy based on who's the best
shot, their internal alliances, and so on. Now I walk into the room and I'm
a *really* good shot. In fact, I'm such a good shot that I don't even need
to say "I'll shoot the first person who tries to pull a trigger." I can
just shoot the bullets out of the air. I am not coercing anyone; they can
fire all the bullets they want, without threat of retaliation. But
nonetheless coercion is no longer possible.
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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