From: Robert Owen (rowen@technologist.com)
Date: Fri Nov 26 1999 - 15:08:57 MST
Rob Harris wrote:
> Our base motivations are ... strictly defined and completely invariable.
> Any action we devise to fulfil these goals, is just that - an intelligent
> system devising a method of achieving the strictly defined goals.
Some things to think about:
[1] Resolution of conflicts between "base motivations" (e.g. protective-
ness vs. self-preservation, cooperation vs. competition, etc.).
[2] Motivational Hierarchies -- dominance and recession, rank-order
(prioritization) etc.
[3] The self-destruction of intelligent systems.
[4] Hypertrophication of a "base-motivation" (e.g. bulimia) or its
atrophication (e.g. anorexia nervosa).
[5] The invariability of "base motivations" seems to imply the
termination of evolutionary process in the species concerned;
why evolve from unicellular morphology to multicellular? Why
experiment with other than asexual reproduction?
[6] Are the "strictly defined goals" of a mushroom any different
than those of a flatworm, and if so, how and why?
[7] Was there a primordial "base motivation" to evolve an "intelligent
system" for implementing the reduction of "strictly defined" needs?
OR: how would you describe the "intelligent system" used by used
by a bacterium to achieve its "strictly defined goals"? "It doesn't
have a central nervous system, so how can it have one?" Then
how did we get one? Not because we needed to! Think about it.
=======================
Robert M. Owen
Director
The Orion Institute
57 W. Morgan Street
Brevard, NC 28712-3659 USA
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