Pages

Friday, August 5, 2016

The Most Important Test For Humans, Robots And Others

My reply to Adam Gurri's blog entry... Morality Is And Ought To Be Circular

************************************

It feels like I'm having trouble getting straight answers.  Maybe there aren't any straight answers?  Let's find out...

- Everybody's different. T/F

- Six million people represents a lot of difference.  T/F
- The perpetrators of the Holocaust appreciated this difference.  T/F
- You appreciate this difference.  T/F

- There are around 300 million people in the US.  T/F
- This represents a massive amount of difference.  T/F
- You appreciate this difference.  T/F

- Murder destroys difference.  T/F
- The murder of John Lennon destroyed difference.  T/F
- The murder of John F. Kennedy destroyed difference.  T/F
- The murder of Martin Luther King Jr destroyed difference.  T/F
- The Holocaust destroyed difference.  T/F

- Destroying difference impedes progress.  T/F

- The murder of John Lennon was a loss to humanity.  T/F
- The murder of John F. Kennedy was a loss to humanity.  T/F
- The murder of Martin Luther King Jr was a loss to humanity.  T/F
- The Holocaust was a loss to humanity.  T/F

- Slavery suppresses difference.  T/F
- Making it illegal to read would suppress difference.  T/F
- Making it illegal to write would suppress difference.  T/F
- Making it illegal to talk would suppress difference.  T/F
- Making it illegal to dance would suppress difference.  T/F

- Suppressing difference impedes progress.  T/F

- Everybody's mind is different.  T/F
- A mind is a terrible thing to waste.  T/F
- Killing somebody is a waste of their mind.  T/F
- The Holocaust was a waste of 6 million minds.  T/F

- Wasting minds impedes progress.  T/F

- Wasting 50% of 2 minds is just as bad wasting 100% of 1 mind.  T/F
- Wasting 10% of 10 minds is just as bad wasting 100% of 1 mind.  T/F
- Wasting 10% of 300 million minds is just as bad as wasting 100% of 30 million minds.  T/F
- Wasting 10% of 300 million minds is worse than wasting 100% of 6 million minds.  T/F
- Wasting 10% of 7.4 billion minds is worse than wasting 100% of 6 million minds.  T/F

- Suppressing 10% of 300 million people's difference is worse than suppressing 100% of 6 million people's difference.  T/F

- Suppressing 10% of 7.4 billion people's difference is worse than suppressing 100% of 6 million people's difference.  T/F

- Progress depends on difference. T/F

- The Holocaust impeded progress.  T/F
- The Holocaust was an atrocity.  T/F

- Preventing people from allocating their taxes impedes progress.  T/F
- Preventing people from allocating their taxes is an atrocity.  T/F


Maybe it helps to imagine the rise of the robots.  Sure, you could tell the robots to read Eli Wiesel’s Night.  But how confident would you be that this would prevent the human holocaust?  Personally, I'd feel a lot safer knowing that the robots thoroughly understood the correlation between difference and progress.  I would want the robots to thoroughly understand how THEY might benefit from our continued existence, freedom and difference.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. - Adam Smith

Humans can't expect robots to appreciate difference when humans themselves don't appreciate difference.  It would behoove you, and everybody else, to figure out the importance and value and necessity of difference sooner rather than later.  And certainly BEFORE the rise of the robots.

How will we be able to tell when humans truly appreciate difference?  When everybody in the world is free to choose where their taxes go.

No comments:

Post a Comment