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Article 1877 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Man vs. Machine?
Message-ID: <12577@pitt.UUCP>
Date: 5 Dec 91 13:19:07 GMT
References: <2621@richsun.cpg.trs.reuter.com> <YAMAUCHI.91Nov27024148@indigo.cs.rochester.edu> <Yp4.IpvQB4k@catzen.GUN.de>
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Organization: Decision Systems Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.
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In article <Yp4.IpvQB4k@catzen.GUN.de> scot@catzen.GUN.de writes:

>other humans. In which way are humans in competition with machines? They
>can't eat grain and I have little use for electricity. 
>
This shouldn't require too much thought.  I can think of lots of
ways that machines could compete with us.  If machines more intelligent
than humans come about, they may be the one that make all further 
intellectual discoveries, essentially cutting us out of what many
of us consider the highest and most rewarding types of endevor.
They may also compete for power to decide how limited resources are
used.  Perhaps they will decide that they want to go to the stars,
and that all output of the planet will be devoted to that goal, neglecting
what we consider other needs that we have.

>Add to this that machines do not have the inbuilt drive to preserve the
>'species' or rather gene identity that all biological systems have - 
>unless we are stupid enough to give them one. 
>
People have already been trying to build machines with "drives" and
have succeeded in a limited extent.
-- 
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Gordon Banks  N3JXP        | "When in danger, or in doubt
geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu     |  Run in circles, scream and shout" --Heinlein
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