From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Aug 30 2000 - 18:05:12 MDT
Al Billings wrote:
>
> Eli wrote:
>
> > Then do not criticize the work of others.
>
> What work? Was I critisizing someone's work? Where? When?
Well, yes, you were. You said that the Singularity is pie-in-the-sky,
invented by the evil Extropian dogmatists to keep themselves complacent.
This, with respect to the field I've chosen to spend my entire life pursuing.
Now, the correct thing to do would have been to say: "Wow, you mean there are
people actually working specifically towards the Singularity? Sorry, I didn't
know."
> > There is only one reality.
>
> Sure there is. So? You know the exact nature of it in all of its details? You
> know everything there is to know about how the human mind works? The human
> body? The nature of consciousness?
I know enough about intelligence to take a shot at building one from scratch.
I don't know everything, just as a modern-day physicist doesn't know
everything about physics. That is utterly irrelevant when it comes to making
firm judgements with respect to the things I do know about, which includes a
lot of territory commonly regarded as ineffable.
> When do you get your Nobel Prize, Eli? I want to see you collect it since you
> know all of these things.
They don't give out Nobel Prizes for cognitive science. If they did, there'd
be nothing particularly implausible about the prospect of my winning one.
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/home.html
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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