[ExI] Just some thoughts, nothing new really

[Stuart LaForge]

BillK wrote:

> Once we have Total Surveillance and become cells within the AI Borg
> Hive Mind we will all be Good People.
> Bad People are so dangerous that they will be treated as cancer cells
> and destroyed.

Who or what gets to decide what is Good and what is Bad? By what  
criteria? An AI programmed to see anything that challenges the status  
quo as Bad? Make creativity a crime and dissent a death sentence? And  
if you are talking about god-like AI, then why would it bother with a  
bunch of stupid meat-automatons when steel, plastic, and silicon are  
so much more durable?

The thing about cancer is that despite all the surveillance, it still  
happens. You would be trading what few freedoms you have left for a  
false sense of security. I say you would be made far safer by spending  
the money on cancer research instead of total surveillance. Terrorism  
is statistically a relatively minor cause of death compared to cancer  
or malaria or dozens of other diseases. Terrorists are not nihilists;  
they want to rule the world, not destroy it.

> Humans simmering with constant warfare cannot survive as their
> weaponry becomes more and more powerful. The human species will change
> dramatically or become extinct.

We have changed dramatically and we will continue to change. But we  
must must try many diverse strategies and not bet the farm on a single  
drastic approach that may ultimately prove futile.

Humans simmering with constant warfare sounds safer to me than AI Borg  
Hive Minds waging war with the weapons they would have at THEIR  
disposal. Not to mention the fact that if humans change so drastically  
as to be the cells of a hive-mind, then that would be a whole new  
post-human species anyway. So the human species would be extinct  
regardless if a few Borg drones contained some of our DNA.

The *only* reliable way to safeguard against extinction is through  
niche diversification, physical redundancy, and offsite backups i.e.  
off-world colonization. Anything else is just a power grab for the  
remaining resources of our lonely little planet by more of Rafal's  
lying jerks.

Diaspora is our only true hope. And if you are going to engineer  
humanity, than for evolution's sake engineer it to survive the rigors  
of space and not simply to be a more obedient cog in the big machine.

Stuart LaForge