From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Dec 09 2002 - 11:06:41 MST
Lee Corbin wrote:
>...
>The people of Western democracies can by no means be
>said to have an understanding of the causes of their
>prosperity; frequent polls always show that they'd
>vote away their liberties in an instant if only the
>mechanisms to do so were in place. As for power, the
>people of the West are slowing making their governments
>more and more powerful, relegating even personal ethical
>and safety concerns to their big-Mommy (elected) overlords.
>
>Lee
>
That's the reason that I can look at the approaching singularity with
anything less than dread. It seems as if it may well be less bad that
the way things appear to be headed. At least we don't know ahead of
time that it's a choice between destruction and slavery. And it MIGHT
stop the onrushing centralization. We may all end up dead, but that's
one of the obvious directions that we're headed in anyway. And we might
not.
And this is the reason that friendly AI is so important. It's one of
the major things that could cause the singularity could turn out favorably.
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