From: Christian L. (n95lundc@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Apr 06 2001 - 18:06:42 MDT
Chris Cooper wrote:
>
>"Christian L." wrote:
>
>
> >In this context, "explaining these ideas to laypeople" is not very
>desirable
>IMO. The less the general public knows, the more likely we are about to
>reach Singularity. We don't need a huge number of followers. We only need a
>few brilliant programmers.<
>
>And you're gonna teach a seed AI about Friendliness? Good Luck, pal!
Well, no. I think Elezier is better equipped than me for that.
>Seriously, I think that you do have some very valid points about the
>publics'
>inability to accept sudden technological change. However, that's due to
>ignorance on their part.
Not only. The people in the anti-tech movement, like Jeremy Rifkin, are
often intelligent and know a lot about the issues. They can influence a lot
of less intelligent people.
>Keeping them ignorant is a perfect example of
>expecting two wrongs to make a right.
Yes, the argument is that if they find out that we were actively keeping
this a secret, the backlash would be even worse. However, just delaying the
Singularity is bad enough, with gray goo and everything.
> >What we are planning on this list is to create a machine that will
>literally
>take over the world.
>Do you really expect the general population to like this idea? I think not.
>We are talking about The End of the World As We Know It.
>I expect about 99+ % of the population to be opposed.<
>
>Didn't Hitler give this speech right before he annexed Poland? (KIDDING!!!)
>Of
>course the general public isn't going to swallow this if it's served up
>like
>that! Convince them that the Singularity means an immeasurably better
>existence
>for everyone on the planet, and I think that they might like it a bit more.
Well, sure. We can say lots of nice sounding things, but the majority of
people will get their information from the newspapers, which would likely
have more alarmist headlines. My point is: most people fear change as a
evolved gut reaction. This as much change as one can possibly imagine.
Therefore, the resistance ought to be big.
I do not think that 20 or so years will ever be enough time to convince the
majority of people that Singularity is a good thing. The golden path between
our viewpoints may be to remain as we are now: we don't appear with Jay
Leno, but there are information online for those who are ready to recieve
it.
> >You are free to call me an elitist, since I feel that this decision is
>best
>made by the elite (us) than by the uninformed masses.<
>
>You may very well be right, but I feel VERY uncomfortable with that
>statement,
>especially from someone that is supposed to program an AI to not act
>selfishly.
>How can you teach these concepts if you don't believe in them yourself?
Again, I'll let Elezier do the Friendliness-programming.
I just want to make it to the other side.
/Christian
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