--- John Ku <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 2/15/08, Eric B. Ramsay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > http://www.jaronlanier.com/aichapter.html > > > I take it the target of his rainstorm argument is the idea that the > essential features of consciousness are its information-processing > properties.
I believe his target is the existence of consciousness. There are many proofs showing that the assumption of consciousness leads to absurdities, which I have summarized at http://www.mattmahoney.net/singularity.html In mathematics, it should not be necessary to prove a theorem more than once. But proof and belief are different things, especially when the belief is hard coded into the brain. For now, these apparent paradoxes are just philosophical arguments because they depend on technologies that have not yet been developed, such as AGI, uploading, copying people, and programming the brain. But we will eventually have to confront them. The result will not be pretty. The best definition (not solution) of friendliness is probably CEV ( http://www.singinst.org/upload/CEV.html ) which can be summarized as "our wish if we knew more, thought faster, were more the people we wished we were, had grown up farther together". What would you wish for if your brain was not constrained by the hardwired beliefs and goals that you were born with and you knew that your consciousness did not exist? What would you wish for if you could reprogram your own goals? The logical answer is that it doesn't matter. The pleasure of a thousand permanent orgasms is just a matter of changing a few lines of code, and you go into a degenerate state where learning ceases. -- Matt Mahoney, [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------- singularity Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/11983/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/11983/ Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=4007604&id_secret=96140713-a54b2b Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
