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From: stgprao@st.unocal.COM (Richard Ottolini)
Subject: Re: "Will Robots Inherit the Earth?"
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Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 15:48:53 GMT
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In article <CwExA7.BHn@unocal.com>,
Richard Ottolini <stgprao@st.unocal.COM> wrote:
>
>is an interesting essay in the current issue of Scientific American
>about the future of intelligent life on earth by c.a.p contributor
>Marvin Minsky.

Some people asked me for some comments about the article.
Lets first look at it in the context of the whole magazine,
which I found pretty matter-the-fact. The issue covered
cosmology, geology, evolutionary biology, extra-terrestial
biology, and paleoanthropology.  M.M.'s article was at the
end of the issue to answer the question about the future of
life in the universe, more specifically the question whether
intelligent life will extend itself in some way through
technology.

The whole issue was a nice review.  I didn't see a whole lot
of new facts- an update on known extraterristial planets discovered
recently; a detailed discussion on how RNA may have been the first
genetic molecule.

I'd call M.M.'s article a straw-man argument.  He states that
flesh-bodies and flesh-minds will soon reach their potentials,
and future increases in capabilities will be likely through
artificial bodies and intelligences.  Then there were some
examples of interesting frontier technology such as a fractal
robot.  I called it a straw-man argument because is emphasized
the limits of the flesh and the optimism of technological
solutions, while some people might just as well argue the
opposite.  But the article was well done in the direction
it wanted to argue and probably a theme the SciAm editor
wished to explore.
