Anders Sandberg wrote:
> "Michael E. Smith" <mesmith@home.net> writes:
>
> > Anders Sandberg wrote:
> > "I wouldn't call that unextropian. After all, extropianism
> > is about other things than believing in specific technologies."
I hope so ;)... but in all human affairs there is always limitations, reluctance and beliefs, slowness, laziness and misunderstanding ;)... I' m rather guilty too ;)
> > Actually, I agree with you about it not being "unextropian",
> > which is why I put the word in quotes. However, I have
> > noticed that not all "extropians" are as open-minded as you
> > about some things. If you imply that it is okay for an
> > extropian to believe that AI is impossible, I find that
> > extraordinary and atypical, especially if you follow that
> > belief to its logical conclusions.
> So? Extropians are in general atypical.
That's why I enjoy it deeply ;)
> I think FTL travel is impossible (without shortcuts and tricks like
> wormholes). But I might be wrong, it might turn out that we discover a
>
> way to do it.
Probably it's old hat for everybody, but I've just discovered today this german guy called Nimtz. He claims that he's able to make travel a Mozart symphony at 4.7c. I would like to know what more knowledgeable peoples than me are thinking about it ;). I'm quite intrigued ;)
> but in the end you can reach the conclusion that AI isn't
> possible given what you know and estimate and still be an
> extropian. The unextropian thing would be to irrationally claim "AI
> *must* be possible".
The question is not is AI possible ? but are we able to build it and how
? ;)are we able to hack the nature ? Of course... just a question of
time... if we are not destroyed or we don't change our minds about the
necessity of it.
Here too i can't be open minded ;)... it's like a religious belief I
have since I played with legos when I was a little child ;)
> So? Suppose it really turns out that there are souls (of the kind
> people commonly believe in). Would that invalidate extropianism? Not
> the least, it would just mean we have to adjust our plans. Like for
> example study how to make AI with souls.
I've something like that in my mind, not a problem with soul but a problem to apprehend the notion of qualia... is it something real or just an illusion in regard to the construction of a being with properties like those of humans? Is the substrate important or not ? I really feel it's important. But in that i'm open minded, i'm quite not sure because of my lack of understanding.
Delriviere
Christophe