From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Sun Sep 03 2000 - 22:11:05 MDT
At 11:53 AM 3/09/00 -0400, Eliezer wrote:
>> Do we have claques of mathematicians
>> wandering about declaring themselves `logarithmarians'?
>People who work with math call
>themselves mathematicians
Yes, quite. And people who work on constructing superintelligent artificial
intelligences are AI theorists or AI engineers or cognitive scientists,
even if they suspect their work might lead to a technological singularity.
Those who work toward nanotechnology are materials scientists or
computational chemists or even nanotechnologists, even if they suspect
their work might lead to a technological singularity.
In THE SPIKE, I remarked on the paucity of specialists in Singularities
Studies, a wry comment based on the growth during recent decades of such
loosely-defined academic disciplines as Cultural Studies, Women's Studies,
Elvis Studies and quite possible Junk Food Studies. People in these
disciplines refer to themselves as, say, cultural theorists or women's
studies theorists. On this model, Eliezer might be a Singularity Studies
theorist or engineer. Since it's a new field comprised of autodidacts or
experts from other areas, this might be a useful coinage. (One would not,
of course, be a `Singularities Student'.)
Damien Broderick
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