From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Sun Apr 15 2001 - 09:35:00 MDT
Even direct enhancement, of adults, through BCI (Brain-Computer
Interfaces), is probably still going to have a longer lead time than
Artificial Intelligence, not least because of the FDA. However, this is
not definite. If transhumans do show up, of course, I'll take as many of
them as I can get, and hope something can be done about the riots.
One wildcard technology that could show up at any time would be Mirrors,
neuroimaging-augmented self-awareness - some researcher running a
rationalizing human through an fMRI, localizing the areas that correspond
to the cognitive and emotional correlates of rationalization, followed by
people training themselves to think clearly via a process analogous to
biofeedback. This is technically feasible today, and it could have a
potentially unlimited impact; a nonrationalizing human has a far higher
effective intelligence in many areas and would be a more effective
researcher. The political implications are also unboundedly large, and it
would be the single easiest form of enhancement to get people to accept.
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://intelligence.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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