From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Mon Jan 09 2006 - 11:30:32 MST
Russell Wallace wrote:
>
> (We can't prove that appropriate new physics will or will not be
> discovered; while keeping an open mind to the possibility that it may,
> it seems to me most sensible to assume for planning purposes that it
> will not, until and unless evidence to the contrary shows up.)
It seems to me that for planning purposes, the sensible thing is to
assume that *some* new physics will be discovered, but not that any
*particular* new physics will be discovered. Apples didn't stop falling
when Einstein discovered General Relativity, so contemporary physics is
surely the best bet for any *particular* prediction.
A possible exception to this rule is when a *very wide variety* of
hypothetical undiscovered physical laws could be exploited by a
loophole-seeking intelligent being to accomplish some particular feat
that contemporary physical models label impossible, *and* there is
something bad that happens to us if we label the feat impossible and we
are wrong.
**
My electrical utility told me to "CONSERVE ENERGY!"
I didn't realize I had a choice about that.
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://intelligence.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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