christopher.andrew.carr

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• Commented on I, Singularity...
  If Ms. Bear thinks seed AI is a totally nonsensical idea, I'm ready to hear it and take lumps. "Intelligence explosion" is a much bigger deal with these people than "uploading."...
• Commented on I, Singularity...
  "The boot is on the other foot; if you think seed AI is viable, I'd like to see some evidence." Fair enough, and point taken. I would be very interested in your notions as to why it's unlikely. I've not...
• Commented on I, Singularity...
  "...where problems are ALWAYS solved by peace, love and working together as a team. ..." I've certainly encountered in Mr. Stross' works situations in which very adult women and men were charged with doing very difficult, nasty, and necessary jobs....
• Commented on I, Singularity...
  And if Ms. Bear thinks seed AI is bullshit, I would be keen to hear a technical rebuttal from her. If someone says I shouldn't ask that, I would question their feminist bona fides....
• Commented on I, Singularity...
  So, I think most uber dork males are not too far away from Ms. Bear's point of view in many things. I'll pretend I'm Michael Anissimov for a second: Powerful artificial general utility optimizers are likely to be here soon....
• Commented on I, Singularity...
  "...Nother hint: I'm one of those popular SF writers you're denouncing..." I'm not sure the SF writers he's denouncing actually exist. I, at least, have never encountered an SF/F writer whose prose might be mistaken for, say, Derrida, Foucault or...
• Commented on I, Singularity...
  "...and in a different tangential direction than the let's-all-redefine-agnosticism tangent that seems to be dominating the thread..." ? I took issue with Bear's definition, one person replied, and I replied to that reply. That tangent is hardly dominating the thread....
• Commented on I, Singularity...
  To be clearer, I'm suggesting there's more than one direction away from "politically conservative...simplistic stories for boys" (as our host put it) -- not all of which lead towards "wretched postmodernist, deconstructionist drivel." I'm far from politically conservative, but I...
• Commented on I, Singularity...
  I would like to think we can have (and it's desirable that we do have) increasing diversity in SF without the whole lot of it degenerating into "cultural studies" essays and other flavors of Neo-Marxist PoMo-blather....
• Commented on The Wrong Trousers
  "(I've been wearing it for a few months now (eeew) and am about to consult the user manual for washing instructions — sorry, sanitary maintenance protocol. Wish me luck.)" Indeed. Love the feel of it, but it's quite easy to...
• Commented on I, Singularity...
  "However, I am not even close to being arrogant enough to feel able to state, unequivocally, that there is no means by which I could be wrong, nor that I somehow possess all possible relevant information, so I will keep...
• Commented on I, Singularity...
  "...I call myself an agnostic because I'm not capable of summoning the belief in my own infallibility it would take to declare myself an atheist..." That confuses me. Regardless of one's epistemological position on the matter, one is either a...
• Commented on Back again
  "They don't see humans as prey, and mostly try to avoid people." It's a little dangerous to generalize over every member of any species of bear. Black bears have a) stalked people for hours, killed and eaten them; and b)...
• Commented on Aten't dead yet
  The forecast high in PDX on the 12th (FWIW, this far out) is a a cool pleasant 22C, so you should feel right at home....
• Commented on It's people!
  Regarding the centrality of the issue of slavery to the Civil War, this excerpt from Mississippi's Declaration of Succession is, uh, instructive: "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery [unambiguous, eh?] - the greatest material interest of...
• Commented on Social networks you won't find me on
  G+ has this notification button in all it's properties -- in that new, black toolbar. A "crack" button, if you will. It's evil; I feel like a pigeon in some Skinner Box variant. Hell of a lot of fun though,...
• Commented on Artificial Stupids
  The topic is addressed here: "It could be argued that Neandertal admixture was indeed higher in West Eurasians initially, but the difference was evened out by gene flow across Eurasia. This, however, makes no sense, as the history of Eurasians...
• Commented on "Yes, but what are your <em>credentials</em>, Mr Stross?"
  I'm not at all sure what particular degree would indicate authority when you're talking about a subject with so many diverse elements. Aeronautical/mechanical engineering? Horticulture? Social psychology? Medical science? Etc?...
• Commented on Artificial Stupids
  "The 4% Neanderthal DNA that we have suggests that some interbreeding also occurred." By "we," you must be referring to Eurasians; Africans do not share DNA with Neanderthal. Interbreeding did not necessarily occur. In fact, it's a little odd that...
• Commented on Artificial Stupids
  "Why we see dogs as 'cute' I don't know (but I prefer cats, so what do I know). It must be more than just behavior and projection, because I have a hard time believing that a big, hairy spider that...
• Commented on Artificial Stupids
  "Cats ... they self-domesticated because with the invention of agriculture, humans needed somewhere to store the harvest, which in turn created a magnet for vermin. Cats eat vermin." Wolves may have self-domesticated in a sense also, with "flight distance" differentiating...
• Commented on Where to get signed copies of "Rule 34"
  As I'm in Portland, Powell's will do nicely,...