Tim Hruby wrote:
>
> Thinking that a moral and poltical debate can be resolved by an item of
> technical knowledge misses a great deal of the richness of human psychology.
Yes, but it's *incorrect* human psychology. I mean, the old debate about whether the Earth went around the Sun incorporated the same overly "rich" psychology. I know perfectly well that the abortion debate represents ancient religious principles, overcompensation for centuries of hideous injustice, decades of partisanship, rationalization, fuzzy thinking, refusal to admit error, general hatred, and miscellaneous bickering. To perdition with it! If it can't be resolved by techical knowledge, I'm not interested.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/AI_design.temp.html
http://pobox.com/~sentience/singul_arity.html
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.