Hi, > I'm not convinced that seeking "human-happiness and human-survival" > is a sufficiently broad base for the hard wired ethical imperative.
The term "hard wired ethical imperative" is stronger than what I have in mind, which is more like an initial condition for an evolving and growing ethical system. Please bear in mind that this is not to be Novamente's only goal. Goals such as "love of learning", "interest in novelty", "desire for a richly patterned world", etc. will also be there. Whether these are ethical or not is a matter of semantics. I have also thought about giving it an intrinsic "value for life", not just human life. This is important, but in my view significantly less important than having it value human life. (BTW, there are a lot of contradictions in humans' own ethics as regards human life, but our ethics as regards nonhuman life are tremendously more inconsistent...) It's not that I don't think it's worthwhile to have an AGI be nice to bunnies and palm trees. But having it be nice to humans is what really worries me, frankly. The other one, to me, is a more minor goal. If it's nice to humans, we'll be around and we'll able to advocate for the bunnies and palm trees on an ongoing basis... > Have you coded the ethical structure for the Novamente system yet? > Do you have specs for the ethical system? I'd be happy to provide > feedback on any more specific proposals. No, we're nowhere near dealing with these issues on a practical level. At the current, frustratingly slow rate of progress, I'd reckon we're 2 years from where this stuff is at all pragmatically relevant. This assumes that in 1 year we're at the point where we can start with basic experiential learning experiments. Of course, an influx of funding, or of volunteers with appropriate backgrounds and significant time to devote, could accelerate this schedule. When we begin serious work on ethical issues, I will seek feedback from this community, including yourself! -- Ben G ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?[EMAIL PROTECTED]
