Hi, So far, I have donated about a thousand dollars for the Singularity goals, and read several books as well...
However, in general, I got disenchanted with the concept of Singularity, and for the following reasons: - Technology and intelligence is like a double-edged sword. It can serve both harmony and cooperation, and hostility and predation. - From what I can observe, the more power over the environment someone gets (it may be a single individual, and organization, or a country), the more there is a tendency to abuse that power (and the environment), get addicted to it, want more of it. I come from a country (Russia) where the government used to destroy its own people by millions. Now it looks like the progress of technology will make it possible to silence all dissent once and for all (in any country). Nanotech, for example, would allow killing with complete impunity. The US government now wants the ability to strike at any place in the world within one hour. As technology gets smarter, this time will decrease to one minute, then one second, then it gets automated, etc. (Russian government would want such a thing as well). - Intelligence IS power. If power can be abused, it will be. - Technological progress tends to increase inequality and create tensions between people (good analogy with astronomy, where as one approaches a black hole, tidal forces increase). Similar stretching forces on the social level? - Current progress in medicine is at the service of the rich. Pharmaceutical companies would rather have thousands of people die than lose some of their profits. It's much better and cheaper to use folk medicine and try to lead a healthy life style than to deal with modern medicine. - Science is immoral in its approaches to living beings, it has no compassion and no heart. (E.g. millions of mice were bred with certain genes knocked out in order to study the genome, other examples may be noted as well). Are we going to allow advanced AIs to do similar things with people? And if no, why do we allow doing these things ourselves with less intelligent beings? - No sane government would allow developing an AI (or in general, 'some kind of power') which: - Has a potential to restructure society and deprive the government of its power and privileges. - Has a potential to install itself as a governing body. - Has a potential to bring bring existing rulers to justice and judge them by the laws different from the ones we have now. Most governments will sooner or later outlaw all decent AI work (unless its under the government hood and serving the interests of the elite). Kind regards, Sergey ----- Original Message ----- From: Joshua Fox To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2007 4:59 PM Subject: [singularity] Reduced activism This is the wrong place to ask this question, but I can't think of anywhere better: There are people who used to be active in blogging, writing to the email lists, donating money, public speaking, or holding organizational positions in Singularitarian and related fields -- and are no longer anywhere near as active. I'd very much like to know why. Possible answers might include: 1. I still believe in the truthfulness and moral value of the Singularitarian position, but... a. ... eventually we all grow up and need to focus on career rather than activism. b. ... I just plain ran out of energy and interest. c. ... public outreach is of no value or even dangerous; what counts is the research work of a few small teams. d. ... why write on this when I'll just be repeating what's been said so often. e. ... my donations are meaningless compared to what a dot-com millionaire can give. 2. I came to realize the deep logical (or: moral) flaws in the Singularitarian position. [Please tell us they are.] 3. I came to understand that Singularitarianism has some logical and moral validity, but no more than many other important causes to which I give my time and money. And of course I am also interested to learn other answers. Again, I would like to hear from those who used to be more involved, not just those who have disagreed with Singularitarianism all along. Unfortunately, most such people are not reading this, but perhaps some have maintained at least this connection; or list members may be able to report indirectly (but please, only well-confirmed reports rather than supposition). Joshua ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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/?&; ----- 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=4007604&id_secret=33567612-dda5f8
