[extropy-chat] Depressing thought of the day

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Wed, 5 Nov 2003, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:

In a very uncommon circumstance -- I am going to take Eliezer
on in this discussion (mostly at the conclusion of the discussion).

> And yet we still can't get rid of spam.

Yep.  Put it down to a legacy effect of non-upgraded
software.  More important may be the issue that
if SPAM can hide itself sufficiently it may be
able to escape detection forever.

Argues that every system needs white-lists as to
whom it is reasonable to communicate with.

(I don't claim it is a good solution -- just
one of the possible.)

> Active shields against grey goo?  Yeah, right.

You are joining problems that have very different
outcomes.  SPAM is annoying and problematic but it
generally doesn't kill people.  Grey Goo could
kill people and therefore evokes a significantly
greater response.

You need to present an argument that (a) people
would not see grey goo coming -- something that
the papers re: ecophagy by R-Freitas would seem
to contraindicate; and (b) we do not have the
capability to eliminate grey goo (something that
to my knowledge base has never been presented).

You have thrown down the gauntlet.  Back it up.

R.