From a Conversation I had Online:
2º What's the difference between a subjectively perfect simulation of an emotion and a subjetivecly perfect "reality" of an emotion?
3ª Do you think that reality is superdeterministic, then? How can exist free will in that scenario? Only way around that problem that I can think of is postulating the existence of strong emergence properties in complex systems
Also: the problem of apparent quantum uncertainty, which can act as that randomizing effect you are talking about
4ºUmmm...superintelligent in what sense? Mathematically? Socially? Technologically? Emotionally?
Are you thinking in God, V.A.L.I.S, Jane (Ender's, of course)? Or Cassanova, maybe?
By the way, are you a sci-fi nutty, like myself? Just curiosity
If so, can you recomend me some fine reading that have some connections to these issues?
Some of my favourites, albeit dated, are :
Snow Crash/Diamond age, N. Stephenson
Schismatrix/ Distracction, B. Sterling
Fairyland, P. McAuley
Some old sagas like Hyperion Cantos/Dune saga
Almost all from Charlie Stross (who on a side note, confessed me by email that he is an old b/tard, lol)
5ºShort answer: yep
Have you read Promethea, from A. Moore?...it has an awfull lot to do with this, or any of his rants about the "ideaspace"
Interesting shit
6ª I can't see how. By almost definition, advanced societies care for the weak, which effectively invalidates darwinist selection.
Indeed, people in most developed countries reproduced less, and inside developed countries, succesful people have fewer children (measuring succes in a monetary/intelectual way, as is the case nowadays...)
2* Can't say I'm really sure what the difference would be, but I suspect that any difference would be unobservable, making the difference pragmatically irrelevant.
3* I guess you could say that I do think that the universe is superdeterministic. I was always going to write this sentence, given my brain chemistry and my environment. At the same time, it feels as though I chose to write that sentence. The difference between free will and superdeterminism, I think, may be a matter of perspective more than anything else.
4*I think we can agree that there are multiple kinds of intelligence: mathematical/analytical, creative, emotional, social, etc. If something possessed these kinds of intelligences to a degree that is superhuman, I'd call it a superintelligence. However, I'm not sure that's what's required of something to be a superintelligence. If an entity possesses superhuman capacities in any realm of intelligence, I think, we might be able to call it superintelligent, even if that superintelligence is limited to a specific subset of that which might be called "intelligence."
I haven't read a lot of sci fi, unfortunately. Most of what I know about these topics comes from reading Wikipedia articles. However, I have read Neuromancer, which is about an AI's attempt to possess intelligence greater than is allowed by the Turing Police. It's a good read, though I bet you've already read it.
I've of course read Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Shadow of the Hegemon, but who hasn't?
5* Haven't read it yet. Which of the books you mentioned would you suggest should be the first I read?
6* While it's true that in developed countries, we care for the weak and thus make Darwinist selection a weaker process, I believe that there still is selection for good traits. It's kind of like good marijuana, if I may make the comparison. Most weed is swag, cross-bread with numerous strains to the point that its characteristics are generic and bland. However, stronger/better/more potent strains are bread with each other (much like how one doctor will often marry another), making the strain contain better traits than the vast majority of its peers. I think the same can be said of humans with desirable traits.
It is concerning that the people least likely to reproduce, however, are precisely the people whose traits are most desirable. This doesn't help notions of continued Darwinist selection in the slightest. Have you seen the movie Idiocracy? It's a comedy, but it's about that phenomenon.
One way these trends can be combated in the near future will, I think, be through genetic manipulation and gene therapy, as long as it becomes available to most of the public rather than just the rich and powerful.
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