[extropy-chat] All hail Will Wilkinson

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Giu1i0 Pri5c0 wrote:
> No, let's continue playing Go because it is an interesting and fun
> game, and let's continue being as competitive as we like when we play
> go, because competition is part of the game.
> I just don't want my or anybody's survival to depend on Go scores,
> because survival is more serious than a game.
> G.

Let me clarify:  Playing Go has a positive side effect, you get better 
at Go and learn generalizable skills.  Playing Go is fun.

An arms race for tallness of genetically engineered babies (yeah, right) 
may end up with negative side effects, such as poor health.

Nothing in the imprecise real world is *exactly* zero-sum, and if it 
were, an altruist wouldn't care about it one way or the other.  Some 
zero-sum games are actually negative-sum games because of wasted effort, 
wasted time, wasted money, infliction of fear and emotional distress. 
Other zero-sum games are positive-sum because people have fun playing 
them and learn something.  It's the "zero-sum" games that are actually 
negative which Bostrom, and myself, would revile.

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