X-Message-Number: 976
Date: 10 Jul 92 02:31:50 EDT
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: comments on Freeman's message

To everyone:

I note Mr. Freeman's remarks, and thank him for providing his assumptions.
However I would point out that his SECOND assumption, that cost of having
a machine do something will go to zero as time goes to infinity, was
being quite specifically questioned both by me and by one other.

Mr. Freeman may wish to buy a machine which will look at sunsets for him,
smell flowers for him, examine new ideas for him, listen to music for
him, and explore the implications of general relativity for him. And for
that matter, if married, to sleep with his wife for him. Or engage in 
whatever other activities he engages in. That's fine. And I'm sure that
if he takes that attitude, he will indeed become obsolete. I will be sorry
to see that happen (really).

But for some odd reason I don't wish to hire a machine to do any of these
things for me. Certainly, I'd use all the computer HELP I could get to
think about the implications of general relativity; but I would still be 
asking the questions and doing the exploration. And if I found I needed to
actually modify myself to explore a new planet (or whatever other activity
I might undertake, as for instance exploring relativity) I would not be 
shy about so doing (though I would wonder just what would be meant about 
becoming less "human"). 

And to be more direct about it, cost is always a measure of the worth of
something to someone else. Human beings ultimately judge this worth (even
if they use machines to help them). Machines have no desires and therefore
cannot act, for themselves, as judges of worth. They can at best do
computations, of ever more complex kinds --- the worth of these computat-
ions to be ultimately judged by HUMAN BEINGS (or whatever we call       
ourselves when we get to that point).

If Mr. Freeman can only measure his worth by what others will pay him for
doing things, I can only feel sorry for him. He suffers from living in a
time when too much thought was oriented towards training up slaves whose
only purpose in life would be to fulfil the desires of others. I think we
are slowly moving out of that time, and that will be a GOOD THING ---
even if all the slaves become upset at the thought that their owners 
won't want them any more.
			Best
				Thomas Donaldson

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