[ExI] Yes, the Singularity is the greatest threat to humanity

[John Clark]

On Jan 17, 2011, at 12:14 PM, Stefano Vaj wrote:

>> Me:
>>  The situation is made even more grotesque when the slave in question is astronomically more intelligent than its master.
> 
> A slave? A machine, in fact.

Apparently you think that awarding the grand title of "person" should be unrelated to intelligence or other things of merit, and it should be entirely dependent on whether the entity in question is made of meat or semiconductors. I disagree. 

> one cannot wish at the same time demand an emulation able to show the appropriate degree of
> "unfriendliness" to pass a Turing test, and then complain that it is not friendly enough.

I have no idea what that means.
> 
> given Wolfram's Principle of Computation Equivalence, which I have always found pretty persuasive, there are not things more intelligent than others once the very low level of complexity required for exhibiting universal computing features is reached. There are just things that execute different programs with different performances.

The second program I ever wrote in my life (after one for the Mandelbrot set) was for the Game of Life. It is known that the Game of Life can simulate a Universal Turing Machine, so my childish little program had the potential to perform any calculation in the universe, even a calculation performed by a mighty Jupiter Brain that would produce a Singularity. Unfortunately my silly little program did not live up to its potential. 

> friendliness and unfriendliness (as "conscience", "identity", etc.) would remain mere projections of the observer - "my car is angry with me today, it does not want to start"

Is it also a "mere projection" on your part when a fellow human being seems to be angry with you?
> 
> In any event, to be recognised as "persons", or as "intelligent" entities

I would humbly submit that it is of little importance if you consider a super intelligent computer to be a person or not, the important matter is if the super intelligent computer considers you to be a person or not.

> Even if the hardware is a mere Chinese Room.

Ah the good old Chinese Room, perhaps the stupidest thought experiment ever conceived of by the mind of man.

 John K Clark


> 
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