From: Paul Hughes (psiphius@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Mar 25 2004 - 12:09:07 MST
--- Yan King Yin <y.k.y@lycos.com> wrote:
> I think we should stop using language such as
> 'waking
> people up' to the Singularity. Eliezer, or anyone
> else
> here, has not figured out how to create FAI. I have
> no
> problem with FAI per se, but I find it unacceptable
> that many on this list:
>
> 1. Claim that FAI is feasible without qualifications
> and without detailing how it could be done;
> 2. Steadfastly avoid any political discussions that
> are obviously relevant to establishing a scientific
> theory of (general) morality.
>
> Be honest. There is no evidence that lying to people
> makes it better for them. Can you cite some
> examples?
I think this is funny, because I am the last person to
advocate lying to people! :-) Just ask Michael
Anissimov, who I just had a rather long and heated
debate over this issue at Imminst.org
Quite the contrary, I think these ideas need to gain
greater currency... and the misunderstanding, even
among transhumanists, should be the first clue that
these ideas are not coming across accurately to
people. Michael set me straight regarding the mission
of the Singularity Institute, this despite the fact
that I have read most of Eli's work, and have been an
active member of the Transhumanist community since
1991.
Michael himself admitted that he had to read some of
the Eli's work 4 times before having an adequate grasp
of the concepts. So if Michael, who is clearly
brilliant, had to read the Singulatarian principles
that many times, imagine how difficult it will be for
most everyone else. No, what I'm saying is
considerable effort need to made to translate Eli's
work into a more easily digestible form that gets
people clued in to what we're advocating, and why.
Clear communication is an art, not a science, and it
must be done with a deep respect and understanding of
your audience.
Paul
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time.
http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:00:46 MDT