Re: >H Machine dominance and human submissiveness

["John Clark" <jonkc@worldnet.att.net>]

Transhuman Mailing List

Alan Grimes <alangrimes@starpower.net> On November 02, 1999 Wrote:

    >The point of my message was to assert a dichotomy between today's
    >computers and  their users.

I understand, but it's not terribly useful to emphasize this dichotomy, at least not yet.
The difference is one of degree not of kind and as time passes the difference can
only become less, but only up to a certain point. Very soon after machines become
our equal they will become our superiors and then the differences between us will
accelerate out of sight. At that point it would indeed be prudent to always discriminate
between the two in our language, but not now. I think your aunt's instincts in this matter
were basically correct.

   John K Clark     jonkc@att.net




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