From: Alex Future Bokov (alexboko@umich.edu)
Date: Mon Sep 18 2000 - 12:06:10 MDT
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On Sun, 17 Sep 2000, Brian Atkins wrote:
> Alex you speak of founder advantages- are you talking about starting a
> commercial effort in this area, or are you planning an open source approach?
Yes.
> (P.S. aren't you already working on something else? How will you have time
> for this?)
At least half a dozen completely different things at last count. Boy do
I wish Transhumanism had more people-hours to go around!
It dovetails nicely, IMO. This particular effort would not itself be a
profit making venture, but it would benefit the for-profit project I'm
working on by cultivating a core of early-adopters and minimizing the
barriers to adoption by design-ahead. In turn, it would benefit the web
developers involved by giving them a head start in a product that I
believe will take over the world.
However, even if we aren't the ones who win, whoever does will have to
do so by rolling out a product with certain characteristics, which I
outlined in my previous message, and which I'm led to believe are
described in the novel EarthWeb (that is still on my to-read list,
unfortunately). If these characteristics are anticipated, and standards
for them agreed upon, there will be less delay and wasted effort due to
incompatibilities between the various competing products.
>
> Alex Future Bokov wrote:
> >
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> >
> > On Sat, 16 Sep 2000, E. Shaun Russell wrote:
> >
> > > I am a bit embarassed to admit that I have not heard any cohesive talk
> > > about an Earthweb until now; as such, any questions I now ask will likely
> > > seem lightweight and redundant until I actually read some more documentation.
> >
> > Don't worry, you're among friends.
> >
> > > The whole concept sounds very heady and prestigious, and ultimately very
> > > do-able. Obviously, a "collaborative superconsciousness" of sorts should
> > > be tops on our ten-year to-do list. So what kind of
> >
> > More like two years, tops.
> >
> > > software\communications do we currently have to make something like this
> > > feasible? I'm not too concerned about the economics of it at this
> >
> > Micropayments, pseudonymous identities that each have a reputation
> > associated with them, collaborative filtering, improved searching,
> > smart contracts, and a really intuitive but powerful interface for
> > discussion/collaboration and you pretty much have it.
> >
> > Economics is important, because an economy already *is* a transhuman
> > decision making system. A group mind. The challenge is just to make it
> > smarter, remove more friction, allow it to expand into domains that up
> > till now have been reserved to individual intelligences.
> >
> > > point...the technical basis is what is most important at such an early
> > > stage. Is there any work currently being done on such a project?
> >
> > Yes, from several directions.
> >
> > > Again, my apologies for sounding a bit awestruck, but this concept (on a
> > > feasible scale) has received little discussion in any circles I am familiar
> > > with.
> >
> > I'm not sure that everybody who's working on the effort is fully aware
> > of its implications. Foresight Institute, for example, calls it 'social
> > software'. The trade press calls it 'online communities'. It definitely
> > needs more discussion, and that's why I want to round up all the
> > Transhumanist web developers et. al. and start a new forum on how to
> > design-ahead for this. That, by the way, is why I see the
> > weblog-on-every-desktop scenario as a desirable one, Eliezer-- it's an
> > intermediate step to EarthWeb (cf. our eGroups debate in front of Nick
> > Bostrom). Of course, competitive pressures will eventually force some
> > company someplace to develop the software, and then all web developers
> > everywhere to adopt it. However, I want Transhumanist-run companies
> > and Transhumanist web developers to have the founder advantage.
> >
> > So, why should a Singularitarian care about EarthWeb?
> >
> > 1. Any new technology may face unforseen obstacles. That's why they're
> > called unforseen. Two semi-redundant technologies aiming for the same
> > goal are a safer bet.
> >
> > 2. EarthWeb will drive economic, engineering, and intellectual
> > developments that may make the job of SingInst easier. Correct me
> > if I'm wrong, but the optimistic time scale for >AI is 10-15 years.
> > The very pessimistic timescale for EarthWeb is 5 years. The large
> > scale behavior of EarthWeb itself may also inspire shortcuts and
> > warn of potential pitfalls that await Transhuman intelligences as
> > a class, whether individual or collective.
> >
> > 3. One way to think of EarthWeb is as an upload of human society...
> > laws, markets, reputations, relationships, institutions, factual
> > knowledge, creative works... pretty much everything except the actual
> > humans. Having such an infrastructure in place is a necessary
> > prerequisite to the uploading of humans... when uploading comes there
> > will be too many other things to worry about to be writing the rules of
> > human interaction from scratch at the same time.
> >
> > - --
> >
> > Oklahoma City Delta Force Gore
> > Why are the above words in my signature? Check out:
> > http://www.echelon.wiretapped.net
> >
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>
- --
Delta Force handgun Waco
Why are the above words in my signature? Check out:
http://www.echelon.wiretapped.net
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