At the same time, much of it seemed rather implausible to me. This was my first introduction to "singularity" ideas, and I found the book pretty astonishing. In fall 2005, a friend pointed me to Ray Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines. Good observed in 1982: "The urgent drives out the important, so there is not very much written about ethical machines". In general, it's important to expand discussion of singularity issues to encompass a broader range of participants than the engineers, technophiles, and science-fiction nerds who have historically pioneered the field. This seems to me a serious gap, and research on this topic deserves high priority. To date, I have not found a detailed analysis of how those who are moved more by preventing suffering than by other values should approach singularity issues. Each person brings unique contributions to the discussion by virtue of his or her particular background, experience, and intuitions. In the face of epistemic disagreements with other very smart observers, it makes sense to grant some credence to a variety of viewpoints. I am not an expert on all the arguments in this field, and my views remain very open to change with new information. For general background reading, a good place to start is Wikipedia's article on the technological singularity. This piece contains some observations on what looks to be potentially a coming machine revolution in Earth's history.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |