From: Peter C. McCluskey (pcm@rahul.net)
Date: Tue Nov 17 1998 - 09:30:10 MST
GBurch1@aol.com (GBurch1@aol.com) writes:
>Do such suits pose a cost to automakers? Of course. And I think most pe=
>ople
>think they should. One only has two alternatives when approaching produc=
>t
>safety: Private suits and central government regulation. Which is more
Wrong. Reputation is at least as valuable a mechanism as those two.
Your basic point that lawsuits don't stop large innovations is correct -
irresponsible lawsuits are almost always aimed at the deep pockets of
industries that have already proven successfull, not at the kind of startups
that start new industries.
>Now, there IS a quite difficult legal issue buried in here, actually -- o=
>ne we
>recently thrashed about on the extropians lawnode list. What happens whe=
>n the
>software agent at the heart of the guidance system becomes so sophisticat=
>ed
>that it is capable of generating goals on its own initiative? I leave th=
Clearly it is important to ask whether holding the agent responsible will
affect it's behavior.
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Peter McCluskey | Critmail (http://crit.org/critmail.html): http://www.rahul.net/pcm | Accept nothing less to archive your mailing list
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