From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Thu Aug 28 1997 - 18:14:31 MDT
Mark Grant wrote:
>
> On Tue, 26 Aug 1997, Nicholas Bostrom wrote:
>
> > My intuitions are exactly the opposite. Your prediction seems to
> > presuppose that the first nanopower won't obtain world dominion, an
> > assumption I find very dubious.
>
> [From the extropians list of a parallel universe, 26/8/1937:
>
> "Your prediction seems to presuppose that the first nuclear power won't
> obtain world dominion, an assumption I find very dubious."
>
> [From the extropians list of a parallel universe, 26/8/1337]
>
> "Your prediction seems to presuppose that the first gunpowder power won't
> obtain world dominion, an assumption I find very dubious."
Nanotech is powerful enough to utterly subdue the enemy within days.
Gunpowder can't do that. Nuclear weapons could have done that, but we didn't.
Nanotech reproduces, which places it above nuclear weapons in that everyone
can have one. If only three or four powers had nanotech, the situation would
have stability comparable to our own, multiplied or divided by a factor
equivalent to the "first strike" possibility of success. If everyone (N>100)
has nanotech, the situation is the same as if everyone had a nuclear
*arsenal*. We'd be doomed. QED.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/singularity.html
http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/algernon.html
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.
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