"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
(e) - deliberately constructed nanoweapons. I'm not ecstatic about (f)
but I don't visualize anyone being that dumb.
>
> > If people are frightened to death I say "GOOD!" because that's less
> > insane than the mind-boggling naivete exhibited by most researchers.
>
> Seriously Eliezer, could you explain a bit more what it is you are
> afraid of --
> (a) self-replicating machines;
> (b) our ability to program such machines;
> (c) the advanced materials properties allowed by hard-nanotech;
> (d) every [sane] person being able to do (b) on (a) constructed from (c);
> (e) the dangers that result from (d) including not-quite-so-sane people;
> (f) the risks posed by allowing nanomachinery to "evolve";
> (g) something I've missed?
Bear in mind that "not-quite-so-sane" includes, basically, the entire U.S. government somebody was so ecstatic about having gotten on board...
-- sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html Running on BeOS Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way