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Revision as of 14:42, 27 November 2004
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American mother on murder charge
Minority Report, I'm not sure I entirely disagree with the charge of murder against the mother. I'd have to know more about what the doctors advised her and what her situation was. But if they told her unequivocally that, if she did not have a Caesarean, her twins would die, and she still refused, and they died, then that would seem to amount to a prima facie intention to kill; or, at least, behavior that wilfully disregarded the likely outcome. If she were deliberately to withhold food from her twins two weeks after the birth, and they died as a direct result, she would risk facing a murder charge. So withholding something crucial from them two weeks before their birth shouldn't be the thing that makes the difference. (I'm not getting into when an embryo becomes a human being here. I'm saying that, two weeks before birth, there can be no argument that they're not human). Of course, there may be something in the mother's situation that would make me change my mind as I'm only judging this on the basis of that one newspaper article. But the principle is that the American justice system, as I understand it, regards foetuses of that age as "persons" in law, which means everyone has the same obligation toward them as they do toward any other person. Slim 01:21, Nov 23, 2004 (UTC)
She was charged with murder for not following medical advice. That is so far over the mark that I had difficulty believing it when I first read about it. I regard the actions of the prosecutors in this case as quite inhuman. It could not happen in UK law, which treats even cases of direct infanticide altogether more sensibly in my opinion.
The woman charged with murder, Melissa Ann Rowland, plea bargained, accepting two counts of child endangerment and the murder charge was dropped.
In the UK courts, in the case St George's Healthcare NHS Trust v S in 1998, the Court of Appeal reiterated that fetuses are not legal persons and found that a court-ordered C-section on a detained mental patient was unlawful.
Glad I live in my Safe European Home. --Minority Report 01:41, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Singularitarianism and Moore's law
On the talk page for Singularitarianism, you stated: "A movement that relies for its chief reasoning tool a misapplication of Moore's Law, well it doesn't merit as much time and space as serious AI research."
I'm writing here because, while this misapplication of Moore's law is very common in speculations regarding the Singularity, and thus I cannot ommit it from the article technological singularity, I do not want to give you the impression that I myself am guilty of this error in reasoning. The idea is mostly pushed forward by Ray Kurzweil, and he gets to dictate the majority opinion because he's one of the few people that write books about the Singularity. Also, it's a convenient argument. Normal folks, and especially people that like to reason from science fiction, are easily tempted to say "Wow, technology does seem to be improving exponentially. The future sure is going to be great!" because, well, people want to believe it. Kurzweil ignores all the real disaster scenarios in his speculations, and seems to think the biggest problem of the future is going to be opposition from Luddites. Kurzweil's optimism encourages insane levels of passivity in people that have enough exposure to futurology to start asking important questions regarding the safety of nanotechnology and AI, but don't because thinking about how great the future will be is much more fun.
I, personally, don't believe in Kurzweil's so-called Law of Accelerating Returns, but I report on it because a lot of other people do. In fact, I want to stress that I think his "law" and the unbridled optimism accompanying it are entirely antithetical to the spirit of Singularitarianism (as defined here — not just mere speculation). I should hate to see you develop opposition to Singularitarianism from the mistaken belief that all its adherents subscribe to this highly questionable reasoning.
I suggest you read Vernor Vinge's original essay (which you will be glad to know makes no mention of Moore's law at all), as his assumptions about the future are a tad more solid than most of those influenced by him. -- Schaefer 00:55, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Thanks. I'm afraid I didn't get far with the Vinge essay before I threw up my hands in impatience at his wilder predictions. I have lived too long to take this kind of speculation seriously. --Minority Report (entropy rim riot) 15:39, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Sorry to have wasted your time. You've been editing some of the related articles and mentioned you read some of von Neumann's earlier speculations along these lines so I just thought you might enjoy it. Speaking of von Neumann, by the way, I found his original mention of a singularity and will insert it in the relevant article. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. -- Schaefer 20:21, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Please don't take my very negative views as a criticism. I'm aware that I've got a very low trigger level on this kind of thing. You haven't wasted my time because I am a little worried about this and wondering if I may sometimes write off worthwhile stuff unreasonably. I think this would definitely have been the case if you had not intervened on Singularitarian. I can review my history on this subject and learn from it.
I'm glad you found the von Neumann reference to a singularity; this should definitely be included in any article, as I'm sure Vinge would be the first to agree. Excellent work! --Minority Report (entropy rim riot) 20:35, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)
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Blogness
I keep thinking about changing the default theme. Maybe someday. Until then, if you like you can change the theme for yourself by clicking on the themes link. --Improv 03:29, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)