Patrick_(orthonormal) comments on Fundamental Doubts - Less Wrong

24 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 12 July 2008 05:21AM

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Comment author: Patrick_(orthonormal) 12 July 2008 11:21:53PM 0 points [-]

Hmm. These doubts might seem sophomoric to us, since the "idiot god" of evolution couldn't conspire against our reasoning with the thoroughness of the Dark Lords of the Matrix. But it makes sense to consider these questions in the course of programming an AI, who will have cause to wonder whether its creators might have intentionally circumscribed its reasoning faculties...

Also, the problem with "cogito, ergo sum" is that it tempts us to posit a self distinct from the act of thinking, thus an immaterial soul, when the best interpretation seems to be that there is no "I" apart from the activity of my brain. I agree with Nietzsche here when he calls it a seductive trick of grammar, imagining that a verb implies a subject in this way.

Comment author: TheAncientGeek 29 March 2014 12:50:35PM 0 points [-]

Where did you heat about evolution?