From: Spike Jones (spike66@attglobal.net)
Date: Sat Apr 07 2001 - 12:22:38 MDT
> At 07:45 PM 4/6/2001 -0400, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
> >For me, the superiority of AI over uploading lies chiefly in two facts:
> >First, uploading is a technology years ahead of AI *or* military
> >nanotechnology...
ASME is the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a very
conservative bunch of gearheads for which I once served as the
student chapter president in college. In January this group had
its annual conference, with nanotechnology being one of the
topics. As it turned out it was *by far* the most popular
session, overloading the facility by such a margin they had to
move the venue into the much larger commons area.
As sometimes happens with a bunch of engineers, they seemed
totally focussed on *how* to bring about nanotech, without any
apparent vision of the consequences or who shall control the
processes under what conditions, etc. I found this unsettling
event as evidence that military use of nanotech is as inevitable
as its eventual development.
ASMEs behavior pretty much demonstrates the futility of
Bill Joy's approach to AI/nanotech/GM. Engineers will say
"This is new, this is cool, lets do it." Generals will say "This
could ruin the commies for good, lets do it." Lunatic fringe
teens will say "This is faaar superior to shooting up the
local high school, lets do it." etc.
I am led to a conclusion similar to what I believe is
Eliezer's: that we must have a strong and friendly AI
in place before nanotech, otherwise...
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