From: Jim Fehlinger (fehlinger@home.com)
Date: Thu Oct 21 1999 - 05:39:40 MDT
"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
>
> If all of humanity could face the creation of transhuman
> intelligence with Warwick's sense of enthusiasm, I would not fear the outcome.
Hmm...
Warwick has written a book titled _In The Mind of the Machine_
(Arrow Books Limited, 1998), which I don't believe is being
distributed in the U.S. (I got mine through Amazon UK).
Chapter Two, "In The Year 2050", contains the following:
"In 2050 ... many humans are kept as general labourers. Because of
the human ability to understand orders from the machines by means
of a very limited vocabulary, albeit very slowly in comparison with
how the machines communicate with each other, we can follow instructions
and carry out some general work tasks, particularly over rough terrain
or where we need to climb into irregularly shaped places. Physically
the labourers are gelded, to cut out the unnecessary sex drive, and
brains have been trimmed to avoid some of the human negative points
such as anger, depression, and abstract thought...
Labourers are kept in gulag-like camps... There is very little
artificial light (what would humans need that for?) and very
little heat, just enough to keep the humans alive, and certainly
not enough for what used to be called 'comfort'...
A labourer's working life starts at the age of 12, having been
selected at birth for such a role. By about 18, labourers are
at the peak of their performance, and by about 27 or 28 they are
usually worn out and are taken to the incinerator, though some
particularly strong humans do last until their early 30's. Life
from 12 until the incinerator is one which involves hard physical
work for almost 16 hours a day, with short feeding breaks, and
travel to the local gulag for sleep...
...Although wild humans are very rare, a few still exist...
Most ... live underground for much of the time, to avoid the
occasional dehuman gassings, where large regions are smothered
by poisonous gases to kill any humans present...
...Under the dominance of machines, once humans no longer have
a useful purpose to serve, are performing their role in a way
which can be done much better by young humans, or have a fairly
serious illness, they are simply sent off to the incinerator.
So this is the picture of the world in 2050. A world in which
machines are dominant, where humans, animals after all, are
treated in a similar way to other animals. Humans are kept
for their usefulness, and those who are not useful are removed.
Humans must do what they are told."
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