Re: Damien Broderick's new book (& the soul)

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Sun, 18 Apr 1999 03:34:31 -0500

Damien Broderick wrote:
>
> The book got a condescending notice in the Melbourne *Age* this weekend
> from hotshot young Oz novelist James Bradley. Much of what he attributes
> to the book is, oddly enough, refuted by the text itself, but I was struck
> by one typical component of his review:
>
> " Neither atomic analysis of the paint nor any amount of sociobiological
> mumbo-jumbo can tell us in any meaningful way why we respond to a da Vinci
> the way we do."

Tell James Bradley that we are coming for him. ("We", in this case, being AI researchers.) We are coming for the Mona Lisa. We are coming for music. We are coming for laughter. We are coming for love. It's only a matter of time.

We all know how love works. I think I understand laughter. I am beginning to have some guesses about music, and even about poetry (such instances of "joy" or "beauty" seem to have something to do with sexual selection). I'm not quite at the Mona Lisa yet, which personally I've never reacted to at all, but It's Only a Matter of Time.

"Laughter is the sound of the joke being erased." - Marvin Minsky (paraphrased) 

-- 
        sentience@pobox.com          Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
         http://pobox.com/~sentience/AI_design.temp.html
          http://pobox.com/~sentience/singul_arity.html
Disclaimer:  Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.