[ExI] Singular vs Group mind(s) [was: Second Life]

[Ben Zaiboc]

Mike Dougherty <msd001 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Do you collectively refer to Americans or American ideals
> when
> discussing international politics?  Are you saying
> that this list does
> not aggregate discussion around a particular topic
> attractor? (of
> course you don't; I exaggerate this point to illustrate
> what I poorly
> expressed on my first attempt)

Fine, but the list itself doesn't have an opinion, it's still individual people who have opinions.  You could group them together (as materialists and crypto-dualists, for example, or socialists and libertarians, or whatever categories you care to use), but those groupings are just a convenience for you, and don't reflect any 'entity' in the real world.

> 
> Suppose hard takeoff AI contacts you in real-time
> communication as
> ambassador for humankind - is your view representative of
> your
> species?  

Of course not.  I don't see what you're getting at here. Maybe I misunderstand the whole thread.

> 
> btw, thanks for disagreeing and voicing that fact. 
> Perhaps others
> found this point obvious and without need for
> comment.  Perhaps they
> felt it so misguided (or undeveloped) as to be unworthy of
> comment.
> Hopefully this argument over my "false and mistaken" idea
> turns into a
> discussion of differences if not agreement.

Ok, I can see how my comment could be taken as an attack on your idea, but I didn't mean that.  Could you restate your argument, because it seems I don't really get it?

(Use simple language, please, my brain is still only small)

Ben Zaiboc