<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On May 20, 2006, at 10:58 AM, KAZ wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:8pt"><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif"> <DIV>----- Original Message ----<BR>From: Robert Bradbury <<A href="mailto:robert.bradbury@gmail.com">robert.bradbury@gmail.com</A>><BR>To: ExI chat list <<A href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</A>><BR>Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2006 7:20:48 AM<BR>Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] hope you can comprehend<BR></DIV> <DIV>I missed the last part of that post...</DIV> <DIV><BR>> 4. For example, donating the money to organizations that would limit efforts to </DIV> <DIV>> create advanced general AIs, which could in turn lead to "SkyNet" which could </DIV> <DIV>> in turn lead to the end of humanity as we know it. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>First, as noted already, "donating" rarely contributes to real advancement.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The for-profit guys continue to kick the asses of the non-profit researchers, when it comes to knowledge advancement. The illusion that the latter is the cutting edge comes mainly from them buying the former's stuff and announcing that they're working for some blue-sky thing based on it. Imagine if government and non-profit research had been responsible for the advancement computing, instead of Intel, Motorola, Microsoft, Apple, et cetera. We probably still would have to go beg computer time from big central machines which would be about as fast as a Pentium, with a clunkier interface and poorer information system. Note the lack of roman numeral after the word "Pentium".</DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>This does not seem reasonable. I have worked in commercial software for heading toward three decades now. I have continuously noted that academic and non-profit research is way ahead of what is actual commercial practice. Some companies have significant research divisions but relatively little of the results seem to come to market. The commercial world emphasizes that which has likely profit potential in the not too distant future. Trends in business today are strongly oriented to short term bottom line results, especially in software businesses. I doubt very much you are going to find many commercial software houses willing to internally fund a 10+ year effort to produce AGI. if you know of any there are many here who would very much like to have this information. I know that you won't find a VC firm willing to fund an AGI startup or a startup to achieve full MNT for that matter. Again, if you can point to for profit significant private funding in these areas other than a few self-funded efforts then please share. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I am a big believer in the free market. However, that is a darn sight different from a claim that only for profit efforts are any good at all in all fields. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>- samantha</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:8pt"><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif"></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:8pt"><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif"></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></BODY></HTML>