Interesting topic. Various kinds of Dark Arts seem to fall in this influence v. manipulation gray area. I think the distinction is going to depend on context, and the projected benefits or drawbacks of said influence to the target and possible third parties. For instance, take the use of Powerpoint slides: They are often used in the classroom for convenience, yet many management experts decry their use in the workplace, because the whole setup connotes the speaker as having a higher status than coworkers, the audience usually falls into a “flow” state or semi-trance (useful in academia, very much not so in business), and the slides’ contents are subconciously perceived as factual and objective even when we conciously try to maintain an open mind.
This problem is going to become more and more serious as research in neuroscience improves: the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories are already working on “cognotechnology” (possibly bordering on mind control according to Gerald Yonas) for the US military. Maybe we need a moratorium on neuroscience and ems research, to complement the SIAI-proposed ban on unfriendly AI development.
Interesting topic. Various kinds of Dark Arts seem to fall in this influence v. manipulation gray area. I think the distinction is going to depend on context, and the projected benefits or drawbacks of said influence to the target and possible third parties. For instance, take the use of Powerpoint slides: They are often used in the classroom for convenience, yet many management experts decry their use in the workplace, because the whole setup connotes the speaker as having a higher status than coworkers, the audience usually falls into a “flow” state or semi-trance (useful in academia, very much not so in business), and the slides’ contents are subconciously perceived as factual and objective even when we conciously try to maintain an open mind.
This problem is going to become more and more serious as research in neuroscience improves: the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories are already working on “cognotechnology” (possibly bordering on mind control according to Gerald Yonas) for the US military. Maybe we need a moratorium on neuroscience and ems research, to complement the SIAI-proposed ban on unfriendly AI development.