Re: September 11: International Enough Day

From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Sep 11 2002 - 18:02:17 MDT


Cliff Stabbert wrote:
> Wednesday, September 11, 2002, 1:22:14 PM, Anand wrote:
>
> <big snip>
> A> Do whatever you do, and do it to say ENOUGH.
>
> To bring this somewhat back on topic, what about "Let's Strive for the
> Singularity Because We've Had ENOUGH Suffering Already" day?

September 11th a day of remembrance? Perhaps. If one sentient being
dies, that is a tragedy. If 3,000 sentient beings die, it is a
proportionally greater tragedy. But let us also remember that the 3,000
people who died in the World Trade Center were no more and no less
precious than the other 150,000 people who died on that day; or the day
before; or the day after; or any day throughout humanity's millennia-long
history; for with each of them the universe lost something precious and
unique before it had a chance to flower; and yet their lives were not
wasted, for before they died they carried on the torch that would one day
light the Singularity. It is a proud and terrible thing to be one of the
very, very few sentients born before the Singularity; a mixture of tragedy
and triumph, vulnerability and power. And if you happen to be
contemplating *that* on September 11th...

--
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://intelligence.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence






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