[extropy-chat] Depressing thought of the day

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Thu, 6 Nov 2003, Greg Burch wrote:

Heck.  I've won the lottery -- I get to debate Eli, Eugen, and Greg
within a single topic.  Somedays the universe (sim that it is) is
really generous.

> I'm with Eugene on this -- I think Eliezer's actually made a brilliant
> comment in his analogy of spam to other, more serious problems that will
> face us in an increasingly networked and meme-driven world.

No -- SPAM doesn't kill people, at least not in a direct fashion
that one might attribute to grey goo (which I assume was Eli's point).
[This is my assumption -- but if Eli had the impression that grey goo
was as dangerous as SPAM then he would not place the need on having
a friendly AI bail us out of the potential mess.  So I tend to think
that SPAM and grey goo are two distinctly different categories.]

Worth noting -- the primary point that I was trying to make was
that grey goo is no longer the threat that it once was.  So Eli
or Eugen cannot cite it as the metaphorical boogy monster that
it once was.  They have to cite some concrete reasons precisely
*why* grey goo will not be detected and eliminated.  (Yes they
can cite human stupidity for not preparing sufficiently -- but
we can go back and forth on that argument for a long time.  We
can just as easily apply it to Near-Earth-Objects which are
natural rather than designed.)

> 'gene's right -- the metaphorical fit is good.  Spam may end up
> having been a blessing, because it gives us a chance to deal
> with a "toy problem" before we have to deal with desk-top vial
> engineering and nanotech in the hands of nutcase terrorists.

I don't know -- though I like Microsoft offering a bounty on
the heads of the hackers.  But as I told the Foresight SA's
this year there is a very low threshold to me to come back
next year and infect them all with SARS.  You are already
past the point of "desk-top vial engineering" -- you just
don't realize it.

It is going to be quite interesting when we get into the issue
of precisely where the funds raised in various mosques go (in
the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, etc.).

The significant barriers to bioterrorist attacks are education
and equipment resources.  Both of those can easily be solved by
money.  And I would guess that our ability to track the money flows
isn't anywhere near what it needs to be.

Robert