From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sun Dec 17 2000 - 05:45:02 MST
"Michael M. Butler" wrote:
>
> "J. R. Molloy" wrote, apart from many fine sounding things, a pair of
> things that spark a pair of questions in me...
>
> > In a world made stupid by ideology, only fools fear the arrival of
> > super-intelligence.
> <snip>
> > " ...and the business of philosophy is to show that we are not fools for
> > doing what we want to do." --Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
It depends. If all I know is competition and if some critical-to-me
things remain scarce enough that only the "winners" get them, and if I
don't have adequate means to increase my own capacities, then I have
reason to fear the arrival of vastly better competitors than any I have
faced before. No matter how you philsophically dice it, the arrival of
such is not an unmitigated personal good in such a case. This is pretty
basic stuff wired strongly into many human beings. It is not at all
illogical. If you want every new and greater intelligence to be
celebrated and eagerly welcomed as enriching all of us then perhaps some
energy should be aimed at insuring that some enrichment does come to all
from each such bright new intelligence.
- samantha
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