On 9/30/07, Don Detrich - PoolDraw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Oops, I thought we were having fun, but it looks like I have offended > somebody, again. I plead guilty for being somewhat off the purely technical > discussion topic, but I thought "Edward W. Porter" and I were having a > pretty interesting discussion.
I'm not accusing you of malicious intent, mind you; in fairness you probably weren't around for the earlier discussions of this topic on other lists. > However it seems my primary transgression is > focusing on AGI as a business opportunity rather than a coming apocalypse. Well as far as I'm concerned the latter is the problem, but I've no objection to both being ruled off topic. Make no mistake, the irrational and destructive hysteria surrounding discussion of the "Singularity" is the real existential risk. The window of opportunity we currently have won't stay open forever, and if we spend our energy poisoning ourselves with paranoid fantasy instead of actually making progress, we reduce the probability that H. sapiens will ultimately amount to anything but an unusual trace in the fossil record. However, it's a familiar fact about human psychology that the usual mechanisms for limiting the length of an argument don't operate when the argument is online and the topic is religion or politics - and this one is both. If I started arguing with every post on this matter, the list would be permanently flooded with the resulting infinite loop - well past the point where anyone was saying anything new - thus destroying its usefulness for technical discussion. (I will also remind everyone that for every one person who voices a complaint as I am, many will quietly leave without saying anything; and the most useful contributors, whose time is the most scarce and valuable, are the most likely to do the latter.) There are plenty of mailing lists where the typical subject of discussion is "how do you create a button in Javascript?" and there are also plenty where "what I'm going to do when I become a god" is on topic. Lists for high-level technical content, however, are in distinctly short supply. I think it's worth preserving this as one. ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=48183098-443fcc
