From: Dani Eder (danielravennest@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Mar 21 2006 - 06:29:50 MST
>
> Flight was considered to lunatic fringe a couple of
> centuries ago and you were sure to burn on a stake a
> bit further back even if you speculated on
> intelligent machines.
>
Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic
in 1600 for postulating an infinite universe with
many worlds, the attainment of unity with the creator
through knowledge, and tolerance for religion other
than Roman Catholic.
On the other hand, a chess playing machine was
demonstrated to the delight of nobles. It was a
fraud, operated by a dwarf inside, but did not stir
theological issues.
AI as we discuss it here is so far beyond what
people were thinking about 400 years ago that it is
as useless to speculate about the response to it
as it is to speculate about how many angels (who
have no physical form) can fit on the point of a
pin (which has no dimension). [That's the proper
form that most people misstate as "how many angels
can dance on the head of a pin"].
DRN
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