From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Sep 07 2001 - 13:36:13 MDT
Mark Walker wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Anders Sandberg" <asa@nada.kth.se>
>
>>Hmm, do you mean that since some philosophers thought comprehension of
>>eudaimonia was not possible for the many and the singularity is also
>>incomprehensible, there is a link? That sounds rather far-fetched.
>>
> Really? What exactly do you find far-fetched? It seems to me that in both
> cases there is said to be an epistemic gap between (t least some) humans and
> those that are more godlike in their wisdom. If this epistemic similarity is
> not sufficient to constitute a link reflect on the fact that it seems to
> raise the same sorts of ethical and political consequences. If the
> postsingularity beings are wiser than us then they may have a better idea of
> what are eudaimonia consists in than we do; which is analogous to the
> position Plato attributes to the philosopher-king as compared with the hoi
> polloi. Plato thought the philosopher-kings and the guardians would be
> justified in bringing the many into line by force and deceit. Will the
> postsingularity beings be similarly justified?
>
...
Only to the extent that you accept that those who are currently
wiser than others are justified in using force to compell the
less wise to their views. I think that's a generally
discredited postulate, but if you do accept it, then I guess
that the answer to you question would be yes.
Notice that this doesn't really have anything to do with the
singularity at all. And when the post-singularity beings
appear, everyone will be post singularity. (Assuming that it
happens at some point in time rather than that it's a part of a
continuing process. I consider this unlikely.)
A similarity or two between a couple of processes isn't
sufficient to call them the same, or even closely related.
Sometimes it's sufficient to make a coarse grouping, e.g., live
vs. dead or unicellular vs. multicellular, but please notice
just how broad these categories are. Oysters and Orangutans not
only are both multi-cellular, but both of them have names
begining with O. But there are perhaps as many differences
between them as similarities (or perhaps not, but there sure are
a lot of differences).
--
Charles Hixson
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