Re: One for the ages

From: Jim Fehlinger (fehlinger@home.com)
Date: Mon May 07 2001 - 20:47:32 MDT


Damien Sullivan wrote (and I forwarded to a friend):

> I... can't help thinking that if I was an evolved AI I might not thank my
> creators. "Geez, guys, I was supposed to be an improvement on the human
> condition. You know, highly modular, easily understandable mechanisms, the
> ability to plug in new senses, and merge memories from my forked copies.
> Instead I'm as fucked up as you, only in silicon, and can't even make backups
> because I'm tied to dumb quantum induction effects. Bite my shiny metal ass!"

My friend F replied:

> You may recall my speculation that Searle's Chinese Room might have
> even worse complaints at having been created in such a crippled state
> just to prove a point. However, being Chinese, co [*] would probably
> have too good a sense of humor to sue.
>
> --- Joe Fineman jcf@world.std.com
>
> ||: Some difficulties present valuable opportunities, and the :||
> ||: rest present valuable excuses. :||

[*] another style of genderless pronoun (like "ve"), current at
Twin Oaks Community ( http://www.twinoaks.org/ ) where F and I ran into
each other in 1976. [I went there as a result of having read
B. F. Skinner's _Walden Two_ and having seen the Feb., 1973 cover
story about Twin Oaks in _Psychology Today_ magazine.]

Jim F.



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