[ExI] samantha vs singularity debate

[Gregory Jones]

--- On Wed, 9/15/10, Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com> wrote:
 
>...Of course, you could argue for a Power guiding humanity now, but a Power would still be limited...Regards,  Dan
 

Dan, many theologians tackle the paradox of an infinitely powerful god, trying to somehow straddle that chasm of paradox.  There was a book I read years ago, back in the early 90s when I was still thinking about this sort of thing, written by Richard Rice, called The Openness of God.  Occasionally someone like Rice will go ahead and realize the paradoxes cannot be fully resolved and will take a stand on one rim or the other of that logical canyon.  He argued in that book that god really isn't infinite, that he has a life, he watches and learns stuff, a little like we do only better, that he really can't do anything he wants.  So in that view, god is more like Star Trek's Q, only not such a bastard (most of the time.)  It caused quite a stir among the faithful, then was forgotten.
 
If one imagines the post singularity AI as an infinite god, one gets with it at no extra cost all the logical paradoxes that have never been resolved.
 
If one goes with the model of a really big but finite post singularity AI such as an MBrain, one eventually realizes there is a definite dark side to that notion.  But it is logically consistent, allowing one to escape paradox and cognitive dissonance.  
 
I'll take dark side for 100 please Alex.
 
spike
 
 
 
  
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