"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
>
> On Tue, 2 Nov 1999, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
>
> > Bradbury wrote:
> > >
> > > It depends on the purpose of an individual's belief and/or the purpose of
> > > the religion. If you want to believe in [...]
> > > If you want to believe in [...]
> > > If you want to believe in [...]
> > > If you want to believe [...]
> >
> > Gaack! Bleah! Ptooey! I hope you were being sarcastic.
>
> Only to a limited degree. I grant the probabilities on my suggestions
> seem to be very small indeed. But to someone living in the 14th
> century the probability of the planets revolving around the sun
> or planes carrying people in the sky would seem very small as well.
I was gaacking at the whole concept of what you believe being influenced by what you want to believe. This may happen to our teeny mortalminds but we don't have to like it, or accept it, or permit it to persist after we've noticed it.
> > Or if the Power has persistent motives created by a reigning theocracy.
>
> I question whether these motives could be enforced over
> interstellar distances.
"Enforced?" There is no enforcement. There is only lack of resistance. If there are no forces that interfere with the initial programming, then the motives are eternal.
--
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