Woodbun

• Woodbun 5 Jun 2013 5:27 UTC

  23 points

  on: Ra­tion­al­ity Quotes June 2013

  ...the machines will do what we ask them to do and not what we ought to ask them to do. In the discussion of the relation between man and powerful agencies controlled by man, the gnomic wisdom of the folk tales has a value far beyond the books of our sociologists.

  • Norbert Wiener

• Woodbun 4 Apr 2013 7:17 UTC

  6 points

  in reply to: Woodbun’s comment on: Ra­tion­al­ity Quotes April 2013

  Incidentally, Mr. Banks has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and estimated to have a few months to live as of this post. Comments may be made on his website: http://​​friends.banksophilia.com/​​

• Woodbun 4 Apr 2013 7:16 UTC

  2 points

  on: Ra­tion­al­ity Quotes April 2013

  “Never forget I am not this silver body, Mahrai. I am not an animal brain, I am not even some attempt to produce an Al through software running on a computer. I am a Culture Mind. We are close to gods, and on the far side.”

  -Iain M. Banks, Look to Windward

• Woodbun 4 Mar 2012 12:02 UTC

  20 points

  on: Ra­tion­al­ity Quotes March 2012

  “One of the great commandments of science is, ‘Mistrust arguments from authority’. (Scientists, being primates, and thus given to dominance hierarchies, of course do not always follow this commandment.)”

  -Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World