[ExI] thinking about the unthinkable

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat




>...We have one chance, is my take. If we blow it, we may well have condemned the entire universe (well, ok, this galaxy, anyway) to permanent oblivion, as far as intelligent life is concerned...

Ben you make a powerful case, thanks.


>...If we can't pull together as a species (who am I kidding? we can't!)...

Ja.  We have evolved as a competing species.  We are unlikely to discover the mechanism for turning off our competitive nature.  Even if DARPA sets up a contest to see who can be the first to figure out how to defeat our self-destructively competitive nature, allowing us a fun and rewarding competition for solution to our tragically-evolved nature, I would not bet on finding it, even given favorable odds.  I would join the race of course, just for the joy of it, the thrill of competition, even given the risk of the agony of defeat.  

>...we need to at least step aside gracefully for the next act (AI)...

Some may opt to do that, in the interest of some superAI dominated future for the galaxy.  Others will not.


>... If we don't, they will do it for us, and it might not be so graceful.
-- 
Ben

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Ah, you may be right on that Ben.  Your commentary is well-presented (now I am sounding like an AI (hey, we should have an AI-imitation contest (we could have a panel of AI contestants and a panel of human contestants (see who or what can best distinguish between AI and human.))))  

My notion is that humanity in its current form will not go down without a fight, without one hell of a fight, honed from thousands of generations of humans fighting each other (we are all descendants of the winners.)  We need not apologize for it: evolution made us this way.  I do thank Keith for his insights, which means we all have a universal plausible excuse for our baser instincts.

spike