X-Message-Number: 8205 Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 10:27:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: Blue and Laughlin Re Deep Blue: I was amused not only by poor Kasparov's response, but by the flurry of agitated items in news media. Kasparov's feeling seems to be, "I have such a brilliant mind, obviously a machine can't think better than I can." This is very similar to the Roger Penrose attitude, and it is based not on evidence but on faith, I'm afraid. Meanwhile, I have read several news pieces (e.g. in Time magazine and on the net) suggesting that Kasparov was not beaten by a machine, he was beaten by other humans who designed the machine, which "cannot think for itself." Well, regardless of who designed it, it DOES think for itself, and regardless of how brilliant we are, our intelligence is not unique. Still, the agitation over a mere chess-playing machine makes me concerned about what the reaction will be when computers can do REALLY interesting things. Luddism rears its ugly head, which does not bode well for the future that we will need if we want to be revived in one piece. Re Laughlin: during my one conversation with him (an interview for a book, actually) he casually suggested that successful resuscitation from cryopreservation is a virtual certainty. This may explain why he has tended to avoid putting any of his hundreds of millions into research (with only one small exception that I know of). Unless his perception has changed, research simply isn't necessary. The pursuit of Rich Benefactors for Cryonics has been an (understandable) obsession ever since Robert Ettinger pulled 200 names out of Who's Who and sent them an earlier, simplified version of his book, before it was published as "The Prospect of Immortality." (Correct me if I'm wrong, Bob.) Once in a long while a benefactor leaves a big lump of money to a cryonics organization as a bequest after legal death, but so far as I know, there is not a single instance of a VERY wealthy person pouring real money into cryonics BEFORE legal death (with the exceptions of Bill Faloon and Saul Kent, but in their case they were cryonicists first, and one could argue that their motivation to run a successful business came FROM cryonics). Of course, one day it will happen. And certainly I have seen Mr. Jackson Zinn trying very hard to make it happen in Nevada. And of course it's worth a try. But still I remain very dubious about near-future prospects. As Laughlin's security guard said to me with a shrug, "We get people coming in here asking for money all the time. All the time." I have no qualms about quoting these items, since I was given permission to do so. --Charles Platt Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8205