From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Fri Sep 27 2002 - 22:19:22 MDT
Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Sep 2002, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
>
>>Lee Corbin wrote:
>>
>>>Who would you say is the greater threat to the
>>>United States (or to Americans): John Ashcroft
>>>or Saddam Hussein?
>>
>>Ashcroft. Of course, I am evaluating them both as threats to the world,
>>since the US is in the world
>
> Come on Eli. Ashcroft is operating in an open society
> with some checks and balances
I accidentally hit 'Send' on that too early...
Yes, Ashcroft is a threat to a free and open society that is likely to
play a heavy role in the Singularity and hence the defense of Earth.
Saddam Hussein is a threat to the world chiefly because of how free and
open societies respond to him as an irritant. Ashcroft is a direct threat
to the Singularity; Saddam Hussein is an indirect threat who wouldn't be a
threat at all without the likes of Ashcroft. It's sad that Saddam Hussein
might actually be easier to remove.
Let's take 9/11 as an example. Which did more damage, the loss of the
World Trade Center or the massive social reaction to the loss of the World
Trade Center? It isn't true that we have nothing to fear but fear itself,
but certainly fear is doing a lot more damage than anything else.
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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