From: Jef Allbright (jef@jefallbright.net)
Date: Sun Sep 16 2007 - 16:02:33 MDT
On 9/16/07, Damien Broderick <thespike@satx.rr.com> wrote:
> At 12:05 AM 9/16/2007 -0700, Kevin Peterson wrote:
>
> >That story stuck in my head as well, not the implication of
> >transcending in the back story, rather for the queen's claim that
> >"intelligence is not a survival trait". It wasn't crucial to the
> >story, but it is difficult to argue against.
>
> It's displayed impressively in Peter Watts' novel BLINDSIGHT, which
> is strongly recommended.
In that story, I think it was self-awareness, rather than
intelligence, that was presented as non-essential to survival.
Misleading, since the element of self is critically important to
intelligence, just not necessarily at the level of the individual
agent.
I enjoyed the book, but for me the key message throughout had to do
with empathy being a function of effective modeling of the internal
state of another, regardless of any basis in similarity.
- Jef
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