On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men : Part Four

[ellyssian]

On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men
By Everett A Warren
March 14, 2004

Presented as part four of sixteen

~ ~ ~

Part One
Previous

~ ~ ~

"We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another."

At the same time that it would be nice to nod and agree wholeheartedly, it comes to mind that this may not be quite as global as it should be. The word "they" comes to mind. A simple disagreement becomes a major schism – "they" want to do things "their" way, and "they" won't listen to "me." In many cases, an artificial constraint, forcing things to +12vdc or -12vdc, corrals both sides of the disagreement into narrow paths in natural opposition to each other. As children, we may have learned of such things in works by Dr. Seuss, particularly in "The Zax"³, but "they" are of the South-going kind, and "we're" heading on a North-bound route. All we need to do is to step aside, but we never budge.

Are we naturally stubborn? Is the author of the quoted passages overly optimistic, with an unrealistic view of mankind, and a lack of access to the modern media?

With exceptions that border in the realm of mental instability, or are placed there on a permanent in-patient basis, we don't truly hate and despise – we often become misguided and think that we hate. We are absolutely convinced that the other one has great latitude and is purely stubborn, while we have to do so on and so forth for such and such a reason... "they" are inflexible, "we're" doing our best. Hate, anguish, and fear might rear their ugly heads whilst we spin our wheels and butt heads, but once we realise what's really at hand, and there is such a beastie as a satisfactory solution that doesn't involve compromise – concessions on both sides does not a win-win make – we can come to the conclusion that hate is much too strong a word for our feelings.

~ ~ ~

Reference Links

3. Dr. Seuss (Theodor S. Geisel) – "The Zax", from The Sneetches and Other Stories
**** http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~cs315/subpages/inline/Zax.html
**** http://www.ksu.edu/english/nelp/seuss/

Next

~ Questions and discussion welcome! ~

~ ~ ~