Re: Eli and Brian Update [Fwd: [>Htech] "Friendly AI" released for commentary]

From: Jeff Bone (jbone@jump.net)
Date: Fri Apr 20 2001 - 08:40:10 PDT


Joseph S Barrera III wrote:

> Also sprach Jeff Bone:
> > > We are actually incredibly clueless about the concept of a sense of
> > > self.
> >
> > There's one thing we can say definitively about it, assuming you believe in "the real
> > world" that is: we have one because it's a survival trait.
>
> Oh, you mean like my appendix and my wisdom teeth?

We have those because at some point, they were survival traits.

Evolution works slowly.

Do you really think sense of self has outlived its usefulness.

> I think SJ Gould would rip you a new one regarding the "if we have it,
> then evolution dicates it must be useful, or at least once was useful"
> argument.

SJ Gould isn't the only evolutionary biologist out there, ya know.

jb



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