Re: Singularity: Individual, Borg, Death?

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Sun, 06 Dec 1998 11:35:26 -0600

Nick Bostrom wrote:
>
> I have often rationally debated positions that I thought I knew were
> correct. [Snip] So I don't agree with you that if you or I
> knew the "objective morality" then it would be impossible for us to
> rationally debate about morality. Isn't that simply false?

The reason why it's called "RA1" rather than "LA1" is because it's a statement about human nature, and thus not provable except by reference to cognitive science. Perhaps you're right, but I prefer to play it safe.

> The way I use the word "know" you don't have to be exactly 100%
> certain about something in order to know it. But in any case, nothing
> in my argument changes if you use a probabilistic statement instead.

Except that your argument no longer contradicts my argument? I think we're basically in agreement here.

-- 
        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.