From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Feb 10 1999 - 13:18:14 MST
hal@rain.org wrote:
>
> Four of these authors are, unsurprisingly, science fiction writers.
> What's Machiavelli, the 16th century political philosopher, doing there?
Not my fault, but I like Machiavelli. At least he's a clear thinker
most of the time. His advice with respect to flattery is a particularly
good example of practicality untouched by moral extremes: {When anyone
can tell the truth about you, you lose their respect; but when nobody
can tell the truth, you can't get any advice: Therefore, get just a few
advisers who can tell the truth about you but continue to punish anyone
else.} This is not advice I intend to follow, but it clearly admits the
existence of the problem and proposes a practical solution. I respect that.
"Nor let him ever believe that a state can always make safe choices; on
the contrary, let him think that he must make only doubtful ones;
because this is in the order of things, that one never tries to avoid
one inconvenience without incurring another; but prudence consists of
knowing how to recognize the kinds of inconveniences, and to take the
least sad for good."
-- Machiavelli, "The Prince"
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/AI_design.temp.html
http://pobox.com/~sentience/sing_analysis.html
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.
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