Given our conversations on the meaning of "faith" and various attempts to discuss the singularity hypothesis, I thought this might be interesting.
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-32560-1_19 Selmer Bringsjord, Alexander Bringsjord and Paul Bello > Abstract We deploy a framework for classifying the bases for belief in a > category > of events marked by being at once weighty, unseen, and temporally removed > (wutr, for short). While the primary source of wutr events in Occidental > philos- > ophy is the list of miracle claims of credal Christianity, we apply the > framework to > belief in The Singularity, surely—whether or not religious in nature—a wutr > event. > We conclude from this application, and the failure of fit with both > rationalist and > empiricist argument schemas in support of this belief, not that The > Singularity > won’t come to pass, but rather that regardless of what the future holds, > believers in > the ‘‘machine intelligence explosion’’ are simply fideists. While it’s true > that > fideists have been taken seriously in the realm of religion (e.g. Kierkegaard > in the > case of some quarters of Christendom), even in that domain the likes of > orthodox > believers like Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, and Paley find fideism to be > little more > than wishful, irrational thinking—and at any rate it’s rather doubtful that > fideists > should be taken seriously in the realm of science and engineering. -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-255-2847, http://tempusdictum.com Morality cannot exist one minute without freedom... Only a free man can possibly be moral. Unless a good deed is voluntary, it has no moral significance. -- Everett Martin ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
