Re: The Singularity

Robin Hanson (hanson@econ.berkeley.edu)
Thu, 16 Jul 1998 12:17:45 -0700

'gene writes:
> > So what exactly do you mean?
>
>Robin, I'm not sure I get your meaning, but I certainly agree with
>Dan's position. I'm not even sure Darwin still holds in the SI domain,
>I'm not certain of anything. I do not see how anyone who goes on two
>legs can sensibly speculate about that _hypothetic_ future entity/state
>... but just now this is entertainment. We need the pre-SI models to
>dynamically adjust our trajectories as we fall into the Singularity,
>... but we should not try to forecast too far too soon.

I don't know if I agree with Dan or you until I know what you mean. What is a "sensible" speculation?

Are you saying, for example, that on average the forecasts I might make today about 2098 are no more accurate than the forecast an ancestor of mine might have made in 1898 about 2098?

Robin Hanson
hanson@econ.berkeley.edu http://hanson.berkeley.edu/ RWJF Health Policy Scholar, Sch. of Public Health 510-643-1884 140 Warren Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720-7360 FAX: 510-643-2627