From: Jimmy Wales (jwales@bomis.com)
Date: Wed Jun 13 2001 - 01:41:40 MDT
Brian Atkins wrote:
> Well here you run into the familiar (should be familiar to you by now)
> problem of existential risks. We most likely can't know the answer to this
> issue either way until we actually could test such a situation out. And
> even then you run a big risk if it turns out that Jimmy/James is wrong. So
> what I'm trying to say (along with Eliezer) is you have to be conservative
> when it comes to these kinds of risks, and make choices based more on what
> can go wrong, even if the perceived probabilities are low.
Sure, but we also have to be aware that Pascal's argument for the
existence of God (which has the same structure) is fallacious.
Conservatism is one thing -- but being paranoid to the point that we
fail to act is quite another.
If we're that worried about it, perhaps we should stop being advocates
for the singularity and start a terrorist organization to do everything
we can do stop technological progress, right?
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