> Nick Bostrom wrote:
> > den Otter wrote:
> >
> > > Better yet:
> > >
> > > In the first case, we should make sure that such entities are *us*.
> >
> > Yes, that would be nice. Especially if we could make sure that all of
> > us (who wanted) could be an SI. It is less pleasant to
> > imagine that just one or two persons in the world get to be in the
> > first generation of SIs. Could we trust them?
>
>
> What do you mean, "them"?
If they are very few, then (lets' face it) it's extremely unlikely you or me would be would be one of them.
> How about a race - the last one over the top has
> to nursemaid the stay-behinds!
If we could have a reliable arrangement to that effect, it would seem fairly ok.
My point is: Who would we trust to transcend first?
Nobody, I should think.
If there is a very gradual development, then this will not be such a problem. But in the hypothetical case where the development is very abrupt, I think we should be satisfied with nothing less than having many people transcend *simultaneously*.
Nick Bostrom
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb n.bostrom@lse.ac.uk
Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
London School of Economics