From: Tommy McCabe (rocketjet314@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Feb 21 2004 - 18:15:16 MST
--- Joseph Bloch <kronus@inheritors.org> wrote:
> Another possibility exists.
>
> d) It has happened, perhaps numerous times, but they
> just haven't gotten
> here yet. Space is big.
e). They are here, and know about us, but
1). aren't interested in communicating
2). explain
2a). God
2b). Alien sightings
2c). Anything else you care to name
2d). All of the above
3. don't see us as alive
4. don't see us as intelligent
5. can't detect our methods of communication, and we
can't detect theirs
6. aren't allowed to contact us by an AI-gone-wrong
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sl4@sl4.org [mailto:owner-sl4@sl4.org]
> On Behalf Of TC
> Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 4:58 PM
> To: sl4@sl4.org
> Subject: What of a Singularity fizzling out?
>
> Hopefully I'm not rehashing old discussion here, but
> I don't remember
> reading anything about this on any of the
> SIngularity-related pages I
> looked through. It seems to me that there would be
> a reasonable chance
> of the Singularity ultimately resulting in...
> nothing. Rather than
> there necessarily being an explosion of technology
> sweeping over the
> face of the planet, there seems a distinct
> possibility of an implosion;
> either through the transhuman intelligence
> self-terminating (for
> whatever reason we can't foresee now), or through it
> transcending into a
> place or state undetectable by us, and choosing not
> to bring us along.
> I guess I don't see any particular reason why a
> transhuman intelligence
> would choose to do that, but then again, I can see
> no reason why it
> wouldn't, either. It's unknowable, but still a
> legitimate possibility
> that should be acknowleged.
>
> One argument supporting this, although weak and
> enormously speculative -
> more just food for thought, I guess, is that it
> addresses the problem of
> lack of detection of extraterrestrial life. It
> always seemed
> intuitively likely to me that there's probably
> intelligent life
> scattered all over the universe, so one would think
> we'd have heard from
> somebody by now. If a transhuman intelligence did
> decide to bring us
> all along with it when it crossed over to the other
> side, there will
> most likely be some compelling fundmental logical or
> ethical reasons why
> it would choose to do so. And if it brings us
> along, why wouldn't it
> also bring along any other straggling life on other
> planets? Is there
> some sort of rule that a transhuman omniscient
> intelligence can only
> bring along the inhabitants that created it?
> Possible, I guess, but it
> doesn't make that much intuitive sense.
>
> So, given that we haven't been "transitioned" by an
> extra-solar
> superintelligence already, that we still have pain
> and hunger and war
> here, it would stand to reason that:
>
> a) there haven't been any intelligent races to
> attain a Singularity
> yet anywhere in the universe
> b) there have been, and for whatever reason,
> they didn't see fit to
> altruistically ease our suffering over here on Earth
> c) Singularities don't typically bring their
> creator species with
> them.
>
> Again, hope this topic hasn't already been beaten to
> death or anything.
>
> Trevor
>
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