From: Mark Phillips (clay8@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Jul 08 1999 - 17:50:34 MDT
Hi, everyone
I should think that with sufficiently *advanced* nanotech (not even to
mention the possibilities of hyperspace tech [a la Saul-Paul Sirag] and
pico- and femto-tech [as briefly mentioned in Kurzweil's *Age of Spiritual
Machines*]) many "jobs," "activities," "chores," etc. will likely be
**either** (more-or-less completely) OBVIATED **or** thoroughly
NANO-cybernated, thus obviating macro-level (i.e., conventionally conceived)
"robots." Now, of course, a "Robby the Robot" type of robot (or something
generally similar) may indeed find uses in various environments/contexts, as
might a Moravecian "bush robot"; but, for the most part, I should think that
such things will be obviated, precisely at the nano-organizational level.
On the OTHER hand---and here's wHere it gets axiologically/normatively
interesting---there shall surely be intelligent "artifactual" (yet, of
course, oftentimes quasi-organismic) **systems** (whose macro-level
manifestations might well be thought of as ontological **gestalts**, i.e.,
"entities," or even [sometimes] "robots"). And, indeed, these systems,
robots, what-have-you, well be not only intelligent, but ULTRA-intelligent.
WIll they qualify as *persons* (a la Strawson, David L. Norton, et al)?
Tough question. My intuition is PROBABLY!! And don't forget that "we"
shall soon-on be able to *merge* with entities/systems such as these. What
of personal identity?? Well I burned-out (mea culpa!) before completing my
Ph.D.s in both economics (NYU) and philosophy (SUNY-Buffalo) (although I
got my J.D., thank goodness) so I'll defer to our resident Ph.D. on such
matters, Max (More, that is). You did you dissertation on this stuff (more
or less) didn't you Max?
And as for the whole *ethical/legal* "status" of ultra-intelligent systems,
this is surely a conceptual *frontier* where we'll have to evolve it as we
go along (kinda like common law). My intuition though, goes for a kind of
modified combination of "Asimov's Laws of Robotics" plus something closely
resembling a robust set of liberal/civil libertarian protocols for humans
vis-a-vis such systems. (BTW, didn't Asimov also promulgate something
parallel with [and conjoined with] the Robotic "laws" specifically
enumerating such *human* protocols??---someone help me [us] on this
reference!)
And if some of this missive is already passe, redundant, not-courant, then
**please forgive me**--I'm playing "catch-up" again and still have tons of
Extro e-mail to sift through. Just my 2 cents!
Best regards to ALL! TOWARD META-COSMIC HORIZONS!
P.S. BTW, I've seen Dave Deutch's (excellent and highly recommended, BTW)
book *Fabric of Reality* mentioned in passing a few tines lately, but what
about Dave Darling's equally great (though somewhat different) book,
*Equations of Eternity*? Darling is also a mathemetical physicist and much
of *Equations...* dovetails with Deutch's *Fabric...* (although I should
mention that whereas Deutch comes out for his own modified multiple-worlds
interpreation of quantum cosmology, Darling, as best I can make out, pops
for a modified Wheeler-Bohm (hidden variable???!)
self-activating-becoming-yet-sorta-kinda-all-really-happening-"at-once"-Universe
[yeah, yeah, I know, I'm not completely sure what the hell that means just
now either!]) Darling's stuff is very good, however, and I wonder what the
rest of you guys and gals think!?
Hope y'all have a great weekend!
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