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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark<br><br><b><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>But that's exactly my fear, it may be fundamental. If they can change anything in the universe then they can change the very thing that makes the changes, themselves. There may be something about intelligence and positive feedback loops (like having full control of your emotional control panel) that always leads to stagnation. After all, regardless of how well our life is going who among us would for eternity opt out of becoming just a little bit happier if all it took was turning a knob? And after you turn it a little bit and see how much better you feel why not turn it again, perhaps a little more this time.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>The above may be pure nonsense, I sure hope so. John K Clark<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>No John the above makes perfect sense and ja it does worry me too. Controls engineers such as Your Humble Servant tend to see everything in the world in terms of feedback control loops, everything. If you really ponder it, every complex system can be viewed that way and can be modeled that way, and if so, why not intelligence in general, and if so, surely intelligence leads to more intelligence, and self-referencing paradox every time in every system as discovered by Godel, and if so, eventually the positive feedback loops dominate the negative, poles move into the right half plane, instability. Since intelligence begets intelligence, and if so then the singularity is inevitable and we have no idea what happens after a singularity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>That notion of tweaking a knob to get more satisfaction is a good succinct way to state a real problem, or if not a problem certainly a… em… situation. Certainly it has gotten dramatically easier in our modern world to tweak the old happy-knob, and more and more people are opting to do it. So now what?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></body></html>