Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 11:30:44 -0700
From: Kenneth Rufo <k.rufo-AT-home.net>
Subject: Re: Bruno Latour's _Pandora's Hope_ -- Some thoughts.... (long)




"steve.devos" wrote:
> 
> A future, scenario:
> Why is this important, perhaps as important as the political strand? 
> In the near future somebody may create an AI system that could be
> considered to be alive - this mess of silicon, atoms, gallium 
> arsenide and electricity will need to be protected from the idiot
> scientist, corporation and state who will reach for the off switch.
> 

Oddly, it seems as if one of the best investigations of this theme is
narrative: Asimov's _The Positronic Man_.  I won't make any claim
between narrative connections and "truth", but there is an appeal
present within narratives (potentially, at least) that may have more to
say to the practices of the everyday than alternate, more strictly
logical, means of argument.

Kenneth Rufo


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