Fundamentalism has never stopped a country to achieve technological progress: think about the wonderful skyscrapers and green patches in the desert of the Arab Emirates or the nuclear weapons of Pakistan. So it might well be the case that in the future some scientist will start a seed AI believing that Allah will guide it to evolve in the best way.
Both skyscrapers and nuclear weapons weren’t invented in the middle East. The countries hired experts from Western countries that provided valuable expertise. If you want to argue that significant new discoveries are made under the umbrella of fundamentalism you need to bring different examples.
To me it’s not clear that significant advances in computer science can be made in a climate of strict authority. Thinking for yourself is required to be a hacker and while it’s possible to believe in Allah and think for yourself, the social structures of authority that exist in the region make progress in software hard. There are a lot of Indian programmers but few globally successful Indian software companies.
To me it’s not clear that significant advances in computer science can be made in a climate of strict authority.
When dealing with fundamentalist Islam or Christianity, I think biotech would suffer far worse.
There are a lot of Indian programmers but few globally successful Indian software companies.
Do you think India is strictly authoritarian? Perhaps because of the caste system? But then, why don’t the high-caste people who are not under the heel of authority start companies?
But then, why don’t the high-caste people who are not under the heel of authority start companies?
It doesn’t work if the programmers that get hired simply try to do what’s ordered of them. which is true for a lot of Indians.
You need programmers that actually care about the program they are addressing and who want to write beautiful code.
Indian culture doesn’t easily allow bringing programmers in contact with interesting programming challenges and then getting out of the way while making certain that there nothing to distract the programmers from doing their work like having nothing to eat.
Both skyscrapers and nuclear weapons weren’t invented in the middle East. The countries hired experts from Western countries that provided valuable expertise. If you want to argue that significant new discoveries are made under the umbrella of fundamentalism you need to bring different examples.
To me it’s not clear that significant advances in computer science can be made in a climate of strict authority. Thinking for yourself is required to be a hacker and while it’s possible to believe in Allah and think for yourself, the social structures of authority that exist in the region make progress in software hard. There are a lot of Indian programmers but few globally successful Indian software companies.
When dealing with fundamentalist Islam or Christianity, I think biotech would suffer far worse.
Do you think India is strictly authoritarian? Perhaps because of the caste system? But then, why don’t the high-caste people who are not under the heel of authority start companies?
It doesn’t work if the programmers that get hired simply try to do what’s ordered of them. which is true for a lot of Indians. You need programmers that actually care about the program they are addressing and who want to write beautiful code.
Indian culture doesn’t easily allow bringing programmers in contact with interesting programming challenges and then getting out of the way while making certain that there nothing to distract the programmers from doing their work like having nothing to eat.
Ok, well I’m not great expert on Indian culture but I see your point.