From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Sun Apr 18 1999 - 18:43:53 MDT
[My apologies. I am reposting this after having failed abjectly to keep
topic discipline. I'm so terribly sorry. How about if I shave my head
as a penance?]
Lyle Burkhead wrote:
>
> 2. The very idea of "nonbiological, free-living replicators" is absurd.
> It is possible to have replicators that use different materials and have
> different sources of energy than natural cells, but any free-living
> organism that replicates will be "biological" in a general sense.
THE SCENE: Deep in the laboratories of the Singularity Emergency
Response Team.
Mitchell Porter came running in, waving an email. "Zyvex has had a
little accident, and grey goo has eaten three major cities! What will
we do?"
Eliezer Yudkowsky sighed, shaking his head. "I knew it. Well, so much
for this planet. Another warning ignored, only to be proved right all
too late." He took out a little book and added a tally mark.
"Quick, let's launch the emergency Mars evacuation vehicle!" cried den
Otter. Suiting actions to words, he dashed into the one-man vehicle and
took off.
"Let's use the anti-grey-goo nuclear weapons!" cried Nick Bostrum. "No,
the blue goo!" "The active immune systems!" The room threatened to
degenerate into chaos.
"Wait!" cried Lyle Burkhead. All conversation instantly hushed, as the
room turned toward the one man who had not spoken.
"If the goo replicates..." he said slowly, his immense forehead bulging
from the effort of cogitation, "IT MUST BE ALIVE! It's *biological*!"
Pandemonium ensued. Robin Hanson dashed over to the case marked "Open
In Emergency Only", took the mallet, smashed the glass case, and
reverently lifted out the Webster's English Dictionary. "Yes! He's right!"
"And look!" cried Anders Sandburg, pointing at the monitors. "The goo,
being biological, can't eat our facility and condemn us all to horrible,
agonizing deaths! We're saved!"
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/AI_design.temp.html
http://pobox.com/~sentience/singul_arity.html
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.
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