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From: piet@ruuinf.UUCP (Piet van Oostrum)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: More Free Will
Message-ID: <475@ruuinf.UUCP>
Date: 30 May 88 14:41:18 GMT
References: <3200017@uiucdcsm> <532@wsccs.UUCP>
Organization: Univ of Utrecht, Dept of CS
Lines: 32
In-reply-to: dharvey@wsccs.UUCP's message of 16 May 88 23:06:34 GMT
Posting-Front-End: GNU Emacs 18.47.9 of Mon Mar 21 1988 on ruuinf (hcx/ux)

In article <532@wsccs.UUCP> dharvey@wsccs.UUCP (David Harvey) writes:

   If free will has created civilization as we know it, then it must be
   accepted with mixed emotions.  This means that Hitler, Stalin, some of
   the Catholic Popes during the middle ages and others have created a
   great deal of havoc that was not good.  One of the prime reasons for AI
   is to perhaps develop systems that prevent things like this from
   happening.  If we with our free will (you said it, not me) can't seem to
   create a decent world to live in, perhaps a machine without free will
   operating within prescribed boundaries may do a better job.  We sure
   haven't done too well.

I agree we haven't done too well, but if these same persons (i.e. WE) are
going to design a machine, what make you think this machine will do a
better job???

If the machine doesn't have a free will, the designers must decide what
kind of decisions it will make, and it will be based upon their insights,
ideas, moral etc.

Or would you believe AI researchers (or scientists in general) are
inherently better than rulers, popes, nazi's, communists or catholics, to
name a few?

Hitler and Stalin had scientists work for them, and there are now AI
researchers working on war-robots and similar nasty things. That doesn't give
ME much hope from that area.

-- 
Piet van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, University of Utrecht
Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands
Telephone: +31-30-531806              UUCP: ...!mcvax!ruuinf!piet