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- Nov 2016
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www.scottaaronson.com www.scottaaronson.com
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The obvious followup question|and what if a programdiddo all those things?|is often leftunasked, or else answered by listing more things that a computer program could self-evidentlynever do. Because of this, I suspect that many people whosaythey consider AI a metaphysicalimpossibility, really consider it only a practical impossibility: they simply have not carried therequisite thought experiment far enough to see the di erence between the two.
This man cannot understand that if something is a metaphysical impossibility, then a sane person must not try to imagine it, or what should happen if that thing is true. That's idleness and represents a real danger to one's intelligence.
For example; imagine if you were not only you, but all other people; imagine that you had no other choice, but only to kill your father or your mother; imagine that you had no sense of self-responsibility.
Of course if it happens that this thing is not a metaphysical impossibility, then all these people he is considering would be wrong, but at least they were consistent.
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