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Article 1703 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu (Brian Yamauchi)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: AI as the Next Stage in Evolution
Message-ID: <YAMAUCHI.91Nov27204422@magenta.cs.rochester.edu>
Date: 28 Nov 91 01:44:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: magenta.YAMAUCHI.91Nov27204422
References: <YAMAUCHI.91Nov27024148@indigo.cs.rochester.edu>
	<1991Nov27.163210.6186@colorado.edu>
Sender: yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu (Brian Yamauchi)
Organization: University of Rochester
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In-Reply-To: tesar@tigger.Colorado.EDU's message of 27 Nov 91 16:32:10 GMT
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In article <1991Nov27.163210.6186@colorado.edu> tesar@tigger.Colorado.EDU (Bruce Tesar) writes:
>In article <YAMAUCHI.91Nov27024148@indigo.cs.rochester.edu> yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu (Brian Yamauchi) writes:
>>
>>Moravec expects humans to be obsolete within the next 100 years.
>>

>    This statement to me implies that in some way humans aren't
>"obsolete" now. But what purpose do human beings serve, then?
>So far as I can tell, humans serve self-defined purposes (since
>we are the ones going around ascribing purposes to things).
>But then, in that sense at least, humans will never be "obsolete",
>no matter what wonderful machines come along.

Good point.

On the other hand, I think the idea that Moravec and Jastrow are
considering is the development of a non-biological species similar to
humans in being self-motivated, but superior to humans in capability.
Whether or not this is likely is another issue.

Personally, I would imagine a more gradual process of integration
between man and machine, rather than direct competition between two
species.  This could be anything from virtual reality/telepresence to
human intelligence amplification to Moravec's downloading (of
human personalities into robot bodies).


