Re: singleton and memetics

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Thu, 19 Nov 1998 16:48:45 -0600

How would you define "identity"? The possession of a unified set of memories? A single set of goals? A single thread in a multithreaded process? A Cartesian consciousness? A unit having its own copies of basic reasoning faculties which can come to conclusions distinct from those of other units? All of the above? None of the above?

Until you've decided what the distinction is between "many" and "one", you certainly can't figure out which the Singularity will be.

Bonus question: Why do you care?
--

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