Re: future technology as animism

From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Mon Oct 08 2001 - 06:38:27 MDT


On Sun, Oct 07, 2001 at 08:24:16AM -0500, Greg Burch wrote:
>
> I can see a similar practice and mentality developing with regard to "smart
> property" (see Nick Szabo's development of this idea for newcomers here). A
> piece of smart property that would have within it both the intelligence and
> effective means to know and enforce property rights would also have to be
> "propitiated" in any transfer of ownership or even temporary rightful
> possession. In some important respects, this would be indistinguishable
> from the Ur-law of Rome.

It almost sounds like the problems of transferring ownership of a piece
of software in the current anti-copying climate - in this case the
terminii have been forbidden by the high god Jupiter Gates to allow it
to happen (while in the Geek pantheon Linus Zeus has not placed such
prohibitions on the local gods).

In _Brain Plague_ by Joan Slonczewski intelligent buildings were
citizens themselves, and instead of renting them you employed them.

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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