From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Sep 11 2002 - 12:04:50 MDT
On Wed, Sep 11, 2002 at 11:41:15AM -0400, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
>
> I object to this proposed amendment as I'm not sure that difference,
> for the sake of difference, is always rational. There are rare
> occassions when does happen to be rational. But usually "difference
> for the sake of difference", without attention to whether it's a
> good difference or a bad difference, is the aimless product of
> aimless rebellion.
In many situations, problem solving produces better solutions
when you have a group of diverse problem solvers than when you
have a group of similar problem solvers. The identical problem
solvers use the same methods to find a solution and hence can
search a part of the search space more thoroughly. The diverse
solvers have a larger chance of finding qualitatively different
solutions, of which the best is likely significantly better than
just a randomly selected category of solutions. So you want
diverse solvers to find the best category of solutions, and then
a concerted effort to find the best solution within that
category.
Hence I would say that in general we have a use for diversity.
Diversity is also protective against many outside disturbances
for the above reasons: there is always somebody who isn't that
vulnerable to the new random threat, and then we can make use of
that knowledge to change ourselves. But when there is no threat
there is no obvious advantage for that person. One cannot in
general predict who will be resistant to the next threat
(predictable threats are small threats, the disasters are the
unexpected ones). Homogeneous populations are also more
vulnerable to threats than diverse populations because the
(possibly rare) threats they are vulnerable to will attack
everybody and hence threaten the entire population, while a
diverse population at least can survive.
I would say that we should cherish and promote diversity, both for
aesthetic reasons and also these practical reasons.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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