Re: Postmortem on L5 (part 2)

From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Mon 05 Jul 2004 - 21:48:07 GMT

  • Next message: Gene Doty: "L5 and science fiction memes"

    At 02:06 PM 05/07/04 +0100, you wrote:
    >--- derek gatherer <dgatherer2002@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
    > > Trivially easy, outlaw it, then it probably won't
    > > happen. If the worst comes to the worst, delcare
    > > 'war-on-singularity' and just carpet bomb it into
    > > the
    > > Stone Age.
    >
    >That does sound horribly flippant. The more serious
    >point I am actually driving at is that governments in
    >the main can and do control scientific research,
    >simply because they are the main funders. If they
    >perceive that Moore's Law will destroy them, they'll
    >simply cut funding on processor development research.

    Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think government money is much of a factor in processor research, especially in manufacturing technologies. Plus there is not a single government. Look at stem cell work to see how research gets done anyway.

    >In any case, I think that there are problems in any
    >case with the concept. The infinite computing power =
    >infinite knowledge idea assumes that all knowledge is
    >a product of computational processes. What about Goedel???

    It doesn't take either infinite computing power or infinite knowledge to outclass the very smartest of us in the ratio we outclass insects.

    I don't claim to understand more than a small fraction of the implications, but I do know some of the smartest people I know are concerned.

    Keith Henson

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