RE: Singularity?

Eugene Leitl (eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Tue, 31 Aug 1999 22:33:37 -0700 (PDT)

Billy Brown writes:

> Eli isn't the only one. I figure that whether or not this scenario happens
> wil be determined by the laws of physics, so I'm not worried about causing a

"Will be determined by the laws of physics" is a remarkably contentless statement. Everything's (apart from Divine Intervention, which most people here believe don't exist) determined by the laws of physics. So what?

> disaster that would not otherwise have occured. I am, however, very
> concerned about the potential for a future in which AI turns out to be easy,
> and the first example is built by some misguided band of Asimov-law
> enthusiasts.

Fortunately, whoever believes in fairy-tales like Asimov's laws is (due to obvious extreme incompetence) quite unlikely to bootstrap the first AI.

To make this somewhat less noise: I think rushing AI is at least as bad as rushing nano. Relying on best-case scenario (where the the first transcendee is deliberately holding back (*all*) the horses to allow everybody to go on the bus) is foolish at best. To begin, the perpetuator might be not human to start with.

And say hello to oblivion,

'gene