From: "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com>
> Hm, I must have missed this. Is the Taliban now rumored to possess killer
> robot assassins, capable of masquerading for weeks as a close friend or
> coworker, but ready at any time to strike out with their deadly built-in
> steel tentacles?
The religious fanatics who perpetrated the atrocity of September 11, 2001 were
robots in the sense that they were behaving as "efficient insensitive persons
who function automatically."
See Online definition below.
Main Entry: ro.bot
Pronunciation: 'rO-"bät, -b&t
Function: noun
Etymology: Czech, from robota compulsory labor; akin to Old High German
arabeit trouble, Latin orbus orphaned -- more at ORPHAN
Date: 1923
1 a : a machine that looks like a human being and performs various complex
acts (as walking or talking) of a human being; also : a similar but fictional
machine whose lack of capacity for human emotions is often emphasized b : an
efficient insensitive person who functions automatically
http://www.yourdictionary.com/cgi-bin/mw.cgi
--- --- --- --- ---
Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment
We won't move into a better future until we debunk religiosity, the most
regressive force now operating in society.
Everything that can happen has already happened, not just once,
but an infinite number of times, and will continue to do so forever.
(Everything that can happen = more than anyone can imagine.)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:55 MDT