From: Robin Lee Powell (rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org)
Date: Fri Jan 02 2004 - 16:39:57 MST
On Fri, Jan 02, 2004 at 03:02:14PM -0500, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> By the way, I fully admit that I've been wrong before, I'm
> doubtless wrong about some things that I think now, and I'll
> doubtless be wrong about things I believe in the future, too.
>
> However, I think it is prudent to consider *all* scenarios, and to
> stick to the path of evidence and reason.
All of those things are true for me too, or at least I try to make
them be true.
> >> it is unlikely that everything is going to suddenly be perfect
> >> when we've got nanotechnology and know how to build honking big
> >> AIs.
> >
> > Given that almost all large-scale human conflict has been over
> > resources, and nanotech changes the shape of resource allocation
> > entirely, it seems that at the very least the nature of human
> > conflict must change to the point of unrecognizability.
>
> Sure. I doubt we would understand such conflicts any more than
> ants would have understood the first Gulf War. That's not really
> the point -- the point is simply that such conflict is unlikely to
> end, even if on a radically unrecognizable scale.
>
> Resources remain finite, of course. Only so much matter is out
> there in any given volume to build things with, and only so much
> energy is out there in a given volume to drive the things we
> build.
OK, I accept those as good points.
-Robin
-- Me: http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ *** I'm a *male* Robin. "Constant neocortex override is the only thing that stops us all from running out and eating all the cookies." -- Eliezer Yudkowsky http://www.lojban.org/ *** .i cimo'o prali .ui
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