On Thu, 22 July 1999, "den Otter" wrote:
> Eliezer seems to
> favor the AI approach (create a seed superintelligence and
> hope that it will be benevolent towards humans instead of
> using our atoms for something more useful), which is
> IMHO reckless to the point of being suicidal.
>
> A much better, though still far from ideal, way would be
> to focus on human uploading, and when the technology
> is operational upload everyone involved in the project
> simultaneously. I'm very surprised that so many otherwise fiercely
> individualistic/libertarian people are so eager to throw
> themselves at the mercy of some machine. It doesn't
> compute.
Exactly! I've been promoting all along IA instead of AI. Yet you and I seem to be in the minority. What gives? This issue alone has caused me more alienation from the official extropian and transhumanist movements than anything else. As far as I'm concerned I have little use for Hans Moravec, Marvin Minsky and other AI afficiando's that most people here worship as heroes. Besides, Marvin Minsky in person can be the most contemptous person in the room. His behavior at Extro 3 only pushes my point home that many of the AI researchers do *not* have our best interest in mind.
Paul Hughes