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Article 3658 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: The problem of the commons
Message-ID: <1992Feb11.225208.8738@husc3.harvard.edu>
Date: 12 Feb 92 03:52:06 GMT
References: <POLLACK.92Feb10180646@dendrite.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Dept. of Math, Harvard Univ.
Lines: 63
Nntp-Posting-Host: zariski.harvard.edu

In article <POLLACK.92Feb10180646@dendrite.cis.ohio-state.edu> 
pollack@cis.ohio-state.edu writes:

>There is a common meadow at a village of shepherds.  Each shepherd has
>a few sheep. and the sheep are all happy and well fed, as is the
>village.  But a couple of shepherds get the idea that having more
>sheep would make them that much more wealthy. Its pretty easy to
>reproduce sheep, and soon the other shepherds copied this behavior.
>Now there is not enough grass to go around. 

A charming tale.  Is it at all relevant to this newsgroup?

>So, we had a computer network to discuss philosophical aspects of AI.
>I went away for a while and now come back to find no grass but just a
>bunch of dirt (metaphorically speaking) and smouldering fires.  Sheep
>so hungry now that they all must on every little sprout, as if they could
>possibly own the whole common meadow:
>
>4623: [ 15:jeff@aiai.ed.] Re: Functionalist Theory of Qualia
>4624: [ 11:jeff@aiai.ed.] Re: Multiple Personality Disorder and Strong AI
>4625: [ 19:jeff@aiai.ed.] Re: Strong AI and panpsychism (was Re: Virtual Person?)
>4626: [ 56:jeff@aiai.ed.] Re: Robotic Follies
>4627: [ 23:jeff@aiai.ed.] Re: Functionalist Theory of Qualia
>4628:+[ 52:jeff@aiai.ed.] Re: Strong AI and Panpsychism
>
>I mean no insult to Jeff, Dave, or Mikhail, but if each shepherd would
>only keep fewer sheep, there would be some grass left for everyone to
>chew. Write your dissertations or journal articles, instead.

Didn't think so.

In what way do my articles restrict your access to the net?

>This is called defection in the iterated multiway prisoner's dilemma
>game (see Axelrod 1984.) Think about it first before you flame me.

Funny thing about theories: whatever's hip, gets cited by everybody right
and left; no understanding of the subject matter is required.  I invite you
to meditate on the concept of a zero-sum game, and revise your conclusions
accordingly. 

To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, the exchange of ideas has that advantage
over the exchange of things, that in the end both parties come out twice as
well off as they were before.  Think about it first before you flame me again.

>-- 
>Jordan Pollack                            Assistant Professor
>CIS Dept/OSU                              Laboratory for AI Research
>2036 Neil Ave                             Email: pollack@cis.ohio-state.edu
>Columbus, OH 43210                        Phone: (614)292-4890 (then * to fax)


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: Mikhail Zeleny                                                     :
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