From: Michael S. Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed Jan 10 2001 - 12:24:23 MST
"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
>
> Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
> >
> > If it happens, we're screwed. Accept this, and decide what you're
> > going to do about it.
>
> john marlow wrote:
> >
> > "For there is no secret and there is no defense; there is no possibility of
> > control except through the aroused understanding and insistence of the
> > peoples of the world. We scientists recognise our inescapable responsibility to
> > carry to our fellow citizens an understanding of atomic energy and its
> > implication for society. In this lies our only security and our only hope - we
> > believe that an informed citizenry will act for life and not for death.
> > ---Albert Einstein, 1947"
>
> So, basically sit around debating the issue until the goo eats through an
> artery. Okay. Just checking.
>
> I agree that this is better than nothing, but I have to say that, in my
> honest and considered estimation, it is not enough. If goo gets loose,
> we're screwed. If there's nothing we can do to prevent it except rely on
> a UN vote, we're still screwed.
The problem is that while goo as a concept is scary, I have little
concern that such a technology will be so easily attainable and
therefore so difficult to contain. I expect that any project to develop
goo will design in sufficient number of safeguards that even if one or
two fail at any given time that the odds of all failing at the same time
are impossibly remote.
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