From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Mon Sep 25 2000 - 10:44:22 MDT
Eugene Leitl writes,
> Irrelevant. Humans are intelligent, yet are biggest predators and
> inflictors of agony on this planet, simply because their intelligence
> allows them to pursue their agenda on a grander scale. In similiar
> circumstances, cats or weasels would have done worse.
Yes, I agree that (some) humans commit the cruelest and most depraved acts,
placing themselves below the level of animals. At the same time, other humans
rise above selfishness to provide examples of saintly benevolence. So it's not
just a question of intelligence alone. I suggest that sanity is more important
than raw IQ when it comes to Moravec's Mind Children, Kurzweil's Spiritual
Machines, D'Aluisio's Robo sapiens, or de Garis' Artilects. The most important
question, it seems to me, relates to how humanity can become sane.
IOW, is it sane to want to create an AI?
--J. R.
"I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems
is just as dumb as the next guy." -- Richard Feynman
[Amara Graps Collection]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:31:11 MST