From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Mon Dec 09 2002 - 17:37:37 MST
Charles writes
> >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.
>
> 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 [than] the way
> things appear to be headed.
Yes, but of course it is not a foregone conclusion
that things won't turn around on their own. People
may come to their senses, especially as the old ones
die off, and their stubborn imperviousness to new
ideas dies along with them.
> 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.
Why do you think so? So far as I can tell, the
planet keeps getting safer and safer for humans.
Oh sure, we could have a few terrorist nukes
here and there, but even in Israel, cars kill
four times as many people as terrorists do. (Yes,
yes, I know: cars don't kill people, bad drivers
do.)
And it may take several small nukes a year in the
U.S. to match the 30,000 dead annually from traffic
accidents.
> 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.
That's right, so far as I can see.
Lee
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