I liked how they introduced her, like "her mother died in an insane asylum thinking she was Queen Victoria" and my thought was, I like where I think this is going. I was not disappointed.
IMHO, altruism is over-rated anyways. More often then not it is pure illusion. What appears to be selfless behavior is really meant to protect a gene or meme. Plus no one would be altruistic if it didn't give us an over-inflated sense of self-righteousness, you fucking hedonists.
As a neuroscientist I have to disagree with the perception that anyone is doing mathematical modeling of cognitive intelligence, yet; intelligence as an economist defines it, yes, but economists are worlds away from actual cognition.
Quote from: Iason Ouabache on February 05, 2010, 08:47:29 amIMHO, altruism is over-rated anyways. More often then not it is pure illusion. What appears to be selfless behavior is really meant to protect a gene or meme. Plus no one would be altruistic if it didn't give us an over-inflated sense of self-righteousness, you fucking hedonists.Hey... I like doing things for other people with no benefit to me, and it doesn't make me feel self-righteous.
Quote from: Iason Ouabache on February 05, 2010, 08:47:29 amIMHO, altruism is over-rated anyways. More often then not it is pure illusion. What appears to be selfless behavior is really meant to protect a gene or meme. Plus no one would be altruistic if it didn't give us an over-inflated sense of self-righteousness, you fucking hedonists.From a zoological perspective, altruism is a useful pattern in studying genetically-influenced behaviour in individuals. So to say that a potentially altruistic individual hastens their own death only to protect genetics present in a group, or because they exist in a society where this is mutually beneficial, is both restating the obvious and missing the point.I assumed, given the subject matter, we were talking about zoological altruism?
Quote from: Mistress Freeky on February 05, 2010, 06:19:49 pmQuote from: Iason Ouabache on February 05, 2010, 08:47:29 amIMHO, altruism is over-rated anyways. More often then not it is pure illusion. What appears to be selfless behavior is really meant to protect a gene or meme. Plus no one would be altruistic if it didn't give us an over-inflated sense of self-righteousness, you fucking hedonists.Hey... I like doing things for other people with no benefit to me, and it doesn't make me feel self-righteous. You got enjoyment from helping others. You got your reward, hedonist.
Quote from: BabylonHoruv on February 04, 2010, 09:18:14 amQuote from: FP on February 04, 2010, 09:11:37 amMoreover, I disagree with the premise that altruism requires "intentionality (and sentimentality)". Or either, even. Certainly, in this context, having a sentient AI which could answer questions like those posed above would be a far greater achievement than altruism.Not really. iGod can answer questions like that. On the other hand it can't do any of the things the "altruistic" robots can do.I assume you're joking - iGod is just A.L.I.C.E. - it matches against patterns in sentence structure but has no comprehension of the conversation, other than a few pre-programmed responses on predictable subjects. It's a clever trick, but it's not sentience.
Quote from: FP on February 04, 2010, 09:11:37 amMoreover, I disagree with the premise that altruism requires "intentionality (and sentimentality)". Or either, even. Certainly, in this context, having a sentient AI which could answer questions like those posed above would be a far greater achievement than altruism.Not really. iGod can answer questions like that. On the other hand it can't do any of the things the "altruistic" robots can do.
Moreover, I disagree with the premise that altruism requires "intentionality (and sentimentality)". Or either, even. Certainly, in this context, having a sentient AI which could answer questions like those posed above would be a far greater achievement than altruism.
Quote from: Iason Ouabache on February 05, 2010, 08:04:15 pmQuote from: Mistress Freeky on February 05, 2010, 06:19:49 pmQuote from: Iason Ouabache on February 05, 2010, 08:47:29 amIMHO, altruism is over-rated anyways. More often then not it is pure illusion. What appears to be selfless behavior is really meant to protect a gene or meme. Plus no one would be altruistic if it didn't give us an over-inflated sense of self-righteousness, you fucking hedonists.Hey... I like doing things for other people with no benefit to me, and it doesn't make me feel self-righteous. You got enjoyment from helping others. You got your reward, hedonist. By your standard of altruism there can be no such thing.Your definition of altruism is therefore dysfunctional.Altruism is only definable in terms of humanistic feeling.
Obviously, my definition of unicorn is dysfunctional.
Altruism is only definable in terms of humanistic feeling.
Quote from: Sigmatic on February 07, 2010, 06:54:17 pmAltruism is only definable in terms of humanistic feeling.Human altruism is only definable in terms of humanistic feeling, zoological altruism is a observable behaviour pattern in some other creatures.