[extropy-chat] Spanish Socialists consider givingapeshuman-level rights

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Brian Lee wrote:
> Isn't this a bit fascist to force a species to upgrade and achieve a higher 
> intelligence.
> 
> I don't think you need to "uplift" any species until they are capable of 
> asking for it.

If they're not capable of objecting, why not?

> You wouldn't support the idea of rounding up all the 85-IQers and forceably 
> making them geniuses, why apes?

I'm not sure I'd support the idea of humans doing this.  But if a 
(CEV-based) FAI did so, I wouldn't suspect it of malfunctioning on that 
account.

I doubt that an IQ of 160 is anywhere near high enough to really grok 
the consequences of having an IQ of 200.  At best, someone with an IQ of 
160 might be able to comprehend their own incompetence.  What use is it 
to make a decision you can't understand?

> This strikes me of the hubris of the 19th (and earlier) century Europeans 
> who thought they were doing the world such a favor by "civilizing" more 
> primitive cultures. How did that work out?

Not well.  Humans aren't very good at predicting the consequences of 
their actions, knowing when they're genuinely acting on someone else's 
behalf as opposed to indulging the temptation to meddle, or figuring out 
what makes people happy.

I will say that human beings messing with apes via gene grafts strikes 
me as a horror-show.  The people who suggest this have no concept 
whatsoever of the brain's complexity, they think in terms of magical 
essences of intelligence.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence