From: John K Clark (johnkclark@fastmail.fm)
Date: Mon Apr 21 2008 - 14:53:37 MDT
On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 "Matt Mahoney"
<matmahoney@yahoo.com> said:
> AI can replace human labor
The AI can replace the entire human race for that matter. But never
mind, and forget about gray goo, I believe unbounded happiness will be
the biggest threat our decedents face and the only thing that might
prevent our mind children from becoming Gods; it may even be the
explanation for the Fermi Paradox. If you could be the happiest
(uploaded of course) man alive just by editing the value of one integer
in your source code you might be strongly tempted to do so, I know I
would be.
I’ll just change the mean happiness quotient in my code from a 5 to a 6,
oh yes that’s much better, I wonder what a 7 would feel like, wow that
was even better than I expected, 8 is really not that much greater than
7 so it couldn’t hurt to….
The trouble is if you’re perfectly happy right now then you have no
incentive to do anything because things are perfect already so any
change you make will only make things worse. Best to just put your hands
in your pockets and do nothing except enjoy the ride. The Universe may
be full of intelligent civilizations but they’re all lotus eaters and
hence invisible. I hope I’m wrong, although I can imagine more horrible
fates.
John K Clark
--
John K Clark
johnkclark@fastmail.fm
--
http://www.fastmail.fm - Or how I learned to stop worrying and
love email again
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