X-Message-Number: 15964 Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 16:27:10 -0500 From: Sabine Atkins <> Subject: final words With this message, I want to say that I regret participating at and involving the other directors of SIAI in the "Singularity... Bah Humbug!" thread started by James Swayze. I'm interested in the cryonics movement since the beginning of 1999. And I'm thrilled by the hard work that has been and is done by all people in the movement. I think it is wonderful that cryonic suspension exists. I'm signed up myself - but I can't lay back and count only on cryonics that it will bring me back from the dead for sure. There is the possibility that cryonics might never work. And so I want to educate myself about the other possibilities around. One of these possibilities is the Friendly AI (aka Transition Guide) Eliezer Yudkowsky plans to build. Now I thought that people who are so much interested in the future like the people in the cryonics movement, are also interested in learning about other possibilities or things that might affect them when they get revived. I can't say for sure whether the Friendly AI might work or not, or whether or not it will be the only AI around forever. And I can't say that the Friendly AI will become a Sysop or not. The Sysop scenario is only a possibility - not what Eliezer plans to build. He merely wants to build a Transition Guide that humanity can use for coping with the accelerating change in technology and science. IMHO, the imaginations some people in the Cryonet forum have about the Friendly AI plan are fueled by fear rather than knowledge. I'm reminded of the well-known sentence: "People fear what they don't understand." I hoped that the people who are skeptical that the Singularity will ever happen and/or that an AI can/should be an important part of the Singularity would be interested in educating themselves about all the different possiblities. James Swayze put "Singularity...Bah Humbug!" in the subject line of his message. On the other hand, he likes to support his arguments with quotes from Ray Kurzweil. This makes me ask, whether James Swayze has read anything newer by Kurzweil than a 2 years old article. Ray Kurzweil's new book is called "The Singularity Is Near" and he has a brand new website (which includes excerpts from the book) devoted to the Singularity and AI. Here's the URL: http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme1/frame.html?main=/articles/art0134.html -- Sabine Atkins http://www.posthuman.com/ -- Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence http://singinst.org/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15964