Re: Shermer's Last Law

From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Sun Dec 23 2001 - 09:19:20 MST


> Although science has not even remotely destroyed religion, Shermer's Last
Law predicts
> that the relation between the two will be profoundly affected by contact
with an ETI.

In contrast to "Shermer's Last Law," science makes no predictions based on
such dubious notions as an ETI, since there is no empirical evidence
whatsoever that an ETI exists.

Here's the first and last law of zenarchy:
Any sufficiently hyper-cognitive complex adaptive system abandons all desire.

Arthur C. Clarke supposedly said, "The only way of discovering the limits of
the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible," but of
course doing so would extend the limits of the possible, thus advancing the
horizon of the impossible, which in turn would yield boundless possibilities.

A better quote from Clarke: "Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as
well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am
aware, the nonexistence of Zeus or Thor, but they have few followers now."

--- --- --- --- ---

Useless hypotheses, etc.:
 consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment, malevolent AI,
non-sensory experience, SETI

We move into a better future in proportion as science displaces superstition.



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