CurtAdams <CurtAdams@aol.com>
> Either nanotech (if possible) or superintelligence will
> probably be a monstously difficult design problem. The only chance
> to compete in the race will be by intense cooperation with the other
> racers. Those who don't share knowledge, experience, and resources
> constantly with all racers as a whole will just get left behind.
> Assuming the preceeding developments have economic significance, the
> racers will in turn be economically linked to the entire developed
> world, which will be using the products, training the participants,
> owning the companies via mutual funds, etc. There would be a "power"
> in a sense, but it would consist of virtually the entire population
> of the developed world.
Yes, a joint international effort could count as "the leading force",
and it could develop into a singleton, perhaps via a world
government. This might also seem like a more desirable outcome than
if a single company or the American military obtained total control.
_____________________________________________________
Nick Bostrom
Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
London School of Economics
n.bostrom@lse.ac.uk
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb
Received on Sun Apr 26 23:48:32 1998
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