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<o:Author>KEVIN FREELS</o:Author>
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<P class=MsoNormal>Well,<!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype
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<P class=MsoNormal>I just picked up Damien's "The Spike". I just started it last
night, but as soon as I started reading a thought occurred. I'm not sure if it
was his book that started this train of thought, or if it just came to mind
since I just finished re-reading Chapterhouse: Dune.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Here's the thought:</P>
<P class=MsoNormal>If posthumans were linked together in a network with our
minds linked to data storage units to augment our memory, AND</P>
<P class=MsoNormal>If an AI existed with far superior abilities to the human
mind and it was feeding back on itself, AND</P>
<P class=MsoNormal>If enough data were available, would that AI be capable of
predicting the future in either a "prescient" sort of way such as Leto II, or in
a psychohistorical way like Hari Seldon in Foundation?</P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Would we no longer have free will?</P>
<P class=MsoNormal>It seems to me that given a sufficiently powerful AI with the
ability to gather all of the available information on motivations, there may be
a possibility of a major problem here. Of course, there are still random factors
such as when I was nailing a baseboard in today, the nail broke off and
part of it hit me in the face. If it would have blinded me it would have
drastically changed my life.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal>So you can't predict such small things and larger events are
just combinations of the small things. But with other matters, they may have
these abilities.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Kevin Freels</P>
<P class=MsoNormal> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2>Kevin
Freels</FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>