Michael Harney wrote: > >> No, evil implies [Heinlein's definition, or some paraphrase] causing >> unecessary pain to sentient beings. > > Hypothetical: > You are so literal. Are you sure you are not a mathematician? :-P
> Someone is driving along and their brakes go out without > warning. An accident occurs that results in one or more deaths. Even if > what happens is a total accident, it is evil? Are you sure Heinlein's > definition wasn't *intentionally* causing unnecessary pain to a sentient > being? > Yes. And we should add a brin-esque qualifier, chaning "sentient" to "potentially sentient". Then why limit to living beings? It's Evil to cause pain to AIs that can suffer pain. > Malicious > intent means, quite litterally, wanting to do harm to another. For an act > to be evil it requires intent to do harm to another, ie: malicious intent. > But you can also be Evil without any intention to do harm anyone. Imagine that you are the Overlord of a MegaCorporation, and this MegaCorpororation owns a Research Laboratory on drugs. Some of your employees are researching a vaccine that prevents Alzheimer: take it once and Alzheimer is avoided for another 10 years. Other employees are researching a drug that slows down the advance of Alzheimer by a factor of 10, but it requires a pill that must be taken once a day. You decide to decomission the vaccine and focus the research on the drug. This is Evil, even if you are chosing an outcome that benefits millions of people. <paranoid> I believe a cure of Cancer or AIDS hasn't been found because the Pharmaceutical industries prefer to create drugs that create a lifetime addiction by slowing down the effects of the diseases. Capitalism is Evil. </paranoid> Alberto Monteiro _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
