> As for appearing unaugmented, that woud be a natural outgrowth of any
> Prime Directive with regard to presingularity cultures: you must appear
> unaugmented.
No, it's a consequence of the Prime Directive for writing about beings
smarter than you are - you can't. Vinge can't either.
> "Of course, I never wrote the 'important' story, the sequel
> about the first amplified human. Once I tried something
> similar. John Campbell's letter of rejection began: 'Sorry
> - you can't write this story. Neither can anyone else.'"
> - Vernor Vinge
> "The toughest challenge for a writer is a character
> brighter than the author. It's not impossible. Puzzles the
> writer needs months to solve, or to design, the character
> may solve in moments. But God help the writer if his
> abmormally bright character is wrong!"
> - Larry Niven
> "Charlie, of Flowers for Algernon, could learn a dozen
> languages, had an eidetic memory, could read a textbook
> an hour - all the things we ask of a computer. But when
> the rat Algernon keeled over, it took poor Charlie
> completely by surprise. It didn't occur to Charlie that if
> there was a simple surgical method to enhance
> intelligence, with no downside, it would have long since
> occurred as a natural mutation."
> - Eliezer Yudkowsky
- from "Staring Into The Singularity".
--
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 know.