Nanotech will probably come first

So I just read this Nanotech article and I thought: "Damn, this is already possible?" It doesn't seem to be long now before we'll have nanobots that self-replicate as well. Right now I can only hope humans are responsible enough with the vast power nanotech gives to not screw up into a grey goo scenario.

Is it better that Friendly Artificial General Intelligence should come first, though? Of course it's impossible to halt progress on nanotech and focus all efforts at FAI, but if it we could, should we do it?

One of the arguments for doing FAI first is that humans are notoriously untrustworthy. The moment nanotech looks promising, the governments will swoop in and weaponize it. When nuclear energy started coming about, really the first application was in a very destructive bomb. Even now its nicer, energy-producing capabilities still aren't fully harnessed, but you can guarantee there are still many nuclear weapons in the world. And with the Middle East situation, why would any of those countries not want nukes when Israel has several? Personally I actually believe Iran wants it for power, not for weapons, but that's another topic.

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Philosophy is Easy

I'd like to just stop there, because it's obvious to me. It should be obvious to any serious computer programmer, scientist, or mathematician.

But of course any philosophers would be offended... Still, this shouldn't be very long...

Okay. I'm too lazy to look up the actual numbers, but doesn't it seem reasonable that there are more philosophy majors than math majors, and more women in philosophy than women in math? (I am not implying that men are smarter than women; I am implying that men are more spread out to the extremes than women and that's why you see more brilliant men but also more men in prison.)

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Where Philosophies Break Down

Do you find yourself possessing a philosophy that explains everything? That helps you out in every possible aspect of your life, that's just all around perfect? You'd recommend it to every single human, and fully expect it to enrich their lives after they've adopted it?

If so, I don't think you're looking at it hard enough.

Make a list of every occurrence your philosophy has helped you. Not where it theoretically would help you, where it has actually helped you in your past. Do these constitute a very broad range of possibilities? Are you still sure it's a perfect philosophy applicable to all of mankind?

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Procrastination!

Canada was awesome, definitely want to go back. But anyway...

I've been having just too much fun building and playing with my new computer and studying for a Math final and doing other homework, and not sleeping much, that I haven't gotten the motivation to do the previously promised blog posts.

They're still planned, so they should be up next week along with the comments, but this week is full of sleep deprivation, studying, and computer fun. Unfortunately I think I'm coming down with a cold...

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Going to Canada

Also, Happy Birthday to me! I'm 19 today.

So yeah, going up to Canada for the weekend. I have a number of posts planned out, so expect a week's worth starting Monday.

In other random news, I'm back on monophasic sleep, but I might go back to the Everyman again. There wasn't anything wrong with it, I just ended up missing a bunch of naps over the course of a week and ended up saying "screw this." So when life is more compatible with the schedule, I think I'll go back to it. Also I bought a new $1200 i7 build with 6 GB of DDR3 RAM and a 1 TB hard drive. (I'll post specs when it arrives and is built.) As far as building this website goes, I'm refactoring parts of the backend again. The comment system is "done", I just need to make it slightly prettier and then I'll sync up this server. You should be able to expect that next week as well.

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