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(quarter--mile.com)
717 points surprisetalk | 4 comments | 15 May 25 02:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source
1. bambax ◴[15 May 25 07:46 UTC] No.43992752[source]▶
> The machines had a good idea of what humans wanted at this point, and so they put vast green forests and big tall mountains onto the planet; they engineered warm sunsets, and crisp cool rain showers on hot afternoons. It was beautiful.

The point of all this is to liken "machines" to a very traditional image of God, and of the rest of nature to God's gift to man.

Machines aren't part of life. They're tools. The desire, or fear, of AGI and/or singularity are one and the same: it's an eschatological belief that we can make a God (and then it would follow that, as god's creators, we are godlike?)

But there is no god. We are but one animal species. It's not "humans vs. machines". We are part of nature, we are part of life. We can respect life, or we can have contempt for all life forms except our own. It seems modern society has chosen the latter (it wasn't always the case); this may not end well.

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2. lynx97 ◴[15 May 25 07:55 UTC] No.43992825[source]▶
Modern society? I am not sure. Genesis 1,28 "... Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Christianity is responsible for a huge part of the human superiority complex.

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3. bambax ◴[15 May 25 08:17 UTC] No.43992929[source]▶
Yes but at the time Genesis was written, humanity didn't have the means to destroy life at scale. And in the New Testament, "killing the fattened calf" (Luke 15,23) is an incredibly rare event, something one does only when something remarkable happens.

Also, in the Middle Ages in Europe (granted, a very small window in place and time) animal life was much more respected than today.

4. RetroTechie ◴[15 May 25 14:07 UTC] No.43995258[source]▶
> Machines aren't part of life.

Imagine an industrial complex. Say, some mining + manufacturing site.

No humans ever go there; it's dangerous, dust everywhere, few places where visitors are even allowed, not designed to accomodate humans, 'nothing' to see or do there.

It's all robotic. The machines run the place, produce their own spare parts, repair themselves, adjust processes as problems come up, improve parts of their own design, etc etc. It's solar powered, the material(s) mined is near-infinite, the whole operation could go on for millenia if left undisturbed. Aaand: the entire complex can produce a copy of itself if more resources are discovered some distance away.

For the sake of argument, would you consider such industrial complex a giant living organism?

No? Alright... let's scale it down 1M:1. Same operation, but the industrial complex doing it, is walnut sized.

Still not "life"? Alright... let's say it largely consists of biological structures ("cyborg"). With some silicon (or whatever) structures included for good measure. Oh, and it moves around according to its own 'will', priorities, 'programmed task' or whatever you call that. If you try to crush it, it'll defend itself or try to escape. If you take half of a rock it's working on, you'll observe it chipping off a piece & move a bit away. Sometimes a # of them will swarm around any intruders / competitors. 'Intelligent', having a will of its own, for all intents & purposes.

You can see where this is going. Something tells me us humans will have to re-visit our definition(s) of "life" @ some point.