The smartest man in the world couldn't think of anything better... (a Watchmen reference in case you didn't catch it)

Well, it doesn't have to be negative. You can think of it in terms of functionality, many forms are more functionally useful in different scenarios than a human one. Even more interesting though is the idea of not having a form at all. I think this would be my choice, existing as no more than a mind in a network.

Sounds good, will try the first book this break.

Exactly, the intuitive sense of mysticism surrounds the mysterious, obscuring the truth. But like any mystery with careful investigation and advances in technology and science the truth will be found and the mysticism discarded. Sayonara vitalism.

Brilliant.

That was a thorough response, I found the linked articles interesting. I agree with you on all counts. To me it seems skepticism of strong AI is rooted in the sensation of our own consciousness as unphysical, or somehow special. The logical arguments for this though are not compelling, and I remain convinced that…

What...? Seriously? A mental disease is not an excuse. I understand you may have strong feelings about this but you need to think carefully about what you are saying. To parse it for you, an excuse is something that removes blame. For instance, a dog ate my homework, so therefore I am not to blame for turning in my…

They should be the same. But I think L5 sounds cooler, doesn't it...

Heh, Kyubey was great, loved the scene where he eats himself.

An excellent response. Rather than address the real problem of adequate access to mental health care this expert blames the problem on facebook, gaming, and reality television (seems like it was just chosen at random from a list of acceptable scapegoats for social problems).

Wow. Your trolling skills are practically professional.

What I don't understand is how it would be possible for the failure of consciousness uploading to not be obvious. If the uploading process succeeds in replicating the behavior thoughts and memories of a person, I find it hard to believe that consciousness wouldn't come along with that, especially because how else…

Yes, the design is imperfect, kill too quickly and you risk not spreading effectively. However it demonstrates the principle that a disease could be created with 100% mortality. A more sophisticated design could incorporate the same idea while enhancing the likelihood of spreading by increasing the time between…

Sounds interesting, is it any good?

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought.

Yeah, but that's not standard magical girl fare...

Nonsense, it has the ability to makes choices, just not ones that violate its fundamental purpose. Of course it is an important question to wonder if this is even possible. A super-ai would require flexibility and likely have an ability to comprehend human communication, making the "paperclip" scenario unlikely.

Nice, that was just the clip I though of...

Too late, now I have to comment. You are close, but actually only men should fly in Y-wings and only women in X-wings... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_sex-determination_system

While I agree with you that a fusion of organic and non-organic in the substrate of future humans makes sense I am not sure what you mean by this...