From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sun Jul 28 2002 - 01:16:29 MDT
Zero Powers wrote:
>
> I searched the whole report. Not a single mention of "singularity."
> But nonetheless a surprisingly "extropian" report for the feds. These
> are indeed heady times. As a for instance, check out this excerpt from
> page 33:
>
> "People will possess entirely new capabilities for relations with each
> other, with machines, and with the institutions of civilization. In some
> areas of human life, old customs and ethics will persist, but it is
> difficult to predict which realms of action and experience these will
> be. Perhaps wholly new ethical principles will govern in areas of
> radical technological advance, such as the routine acceptance of
> brain implants, political rights for robots, and the ambiguity of death
> in an era when people upload aspects of their personalities to the Solar
> System Wide Web. Human identity and dignity must be preserved. In the
> same way in which machines were built to surpass human physical powers
> in the industrial revolution, computers can surpass human memory and
> computational speed for designed actions. The ultimate control will
> remain with humans and human society. With proper attention to
> safeguards, ethical issues, and societal needs, quality of life could
> increase significantly."
They were rolling along and then threw in the non-sequitur,
"Human identity and dignity must be preserved...". Since the
very definition of what "human" refers to has just been shown in
this paragraph to be also subject to flux this statement seems a
bit contrived. The next sentence tries to claim that computers
will only do what we humans tell them to and only outperform us
in "designed actions". In other words, that we stay the boss
and the computer never actually becomes independently
intelligent. So one would assume that the "proper attention to
safeguards" are about forcing some notion of what human is,
suppressing serious challenges to it and suppressing "non-human"
intelligent and autonomy. This does not bode well. It is the
bloodier edge of the government noticing and believing these
things to be real possibilities. I agree quality of life can
increase dramatically but not by imposing limits that hamstring
the process.
- samantha
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