Re: Eliezer at 18

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Fri, 12 Sep 1997 00:36:20 -0500

Damien Broderick wrote:
>
> Birthday, Eli
>
> `Now you are a man!' (Grind your teeth if you must...)
>
> Damien Broderick
>
> [because my first attempted posting via extropy.com failed, this might be
> too late - ho hum... but luckily Australians are a day ahead]

The truth is, there have been enough milestones in my life - winding up in
your book, for example - that I see no reason to make a big deal out of an
arbitrary number of solar rotations. Even the legal consequences are minimal;
there were no significant pending actions I can now take. Later it may have
been necessary to be 18, but it isn't necessary right now, more's the pity.

"Have you ever seen anyone over the age of 14 invent a definition of 'mature'
that excluded himself?" - From a similar conversation.

-- 
         sentience@pobox.com      Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
          http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/singularity.html
           http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/algernon.html
Disclaimer:  Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.