I question the validity and coherence of the idea that an intelligence
is going to effectively modify the laws of physics in such a way that
the world is a better place. It requires an objective measure of what
makes the world "better", and I deny that such a measure exists.
Particularly if this modification is going to reduce the range of human
action, it is going to make things worse for some people. For them,
the world has become a worse place.
More acceptable might be a modification which put no limits on human
action but only reduced the bad effects of nature. Crops would always
come in, there would be no hurricanes or floods, drunks wouldn't fall
off of cliffs. But then people would tend to get careless and lazy,
and maybe such a safe world isn't really better for the human spirit.
It's a strong claim that any agency can make the world better in some
objective sense. It's the old Absolute Morality back in a new guise.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:24 MDT