<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Samantha Atkins <<a href="mailto:sjatkins@mac.com">sjatkins@mac.com</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">June 2, 2008 10:56:20 PM PDT</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">World Transhumanist Association Discussion List <<a href="mailto:wta-talk@transhumanism.org">wta-talk@transhumanism.org</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>Re: [wta-talk] The Singularity - A Dissent</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> </div><div><br>On Jun 2, 2008, at 5:25 PM, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:<br><br><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">In the possibility space of all AI's, there will be some that will<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">manage our affairs better than we could. But the two problems are how<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">to recognise which ones these will be, and how to prevent people from<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">building other AI's that they believe will further their selfish<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">interests. In the case of nuclear weapons only a few have access to<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">them, and it is obvious even to a stupid person how dangerous they can<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">be. Neither of these things is certain about AI research.<br></blockquote><br>I am rather depressed to admit that I find worries about AGI much less compelling of late. The reason is that it seems more certain to me by the day that humans are far too relatively stupid and bound hopelessly by their evolutionary programming to pose much of a threat of any sort of real transcendence or building that which will transcend or is even the seed of such. We take too long to mature only to decay too rapidly. We spend most of our energies, even many of the best and brightest of us in exceedingly mundane activities and concerns. Even the best of us seem quite poor at consistent high quality thinking much less action on any significant scale of cooperating individuals. Our organizations, no matter how high-minded in stated intent, are mired in common monkey feces slinging to such an extent that very little of real value gets done or can get done. I am hoping it is a passing melancholy. But of late this is very sadly how this all too human world of ours looks to me. Perhaps it is only or mostly what I see in the mirror and perhaps harshly. Perhaps many live on a different level. But I am not seeing the evidence this is so and I would very much like to.<br><br>- samantha<br><br></div></blockquote></div><br></body></html>