Sam Harris recently gave a talk at the TED conference on how the scientific method can be employed to answer moral questions. It was a wonderful and thought provoking lecture! I have no idea how it relates to one of technology, entertainment, or design (TED), but who cares? :) I will return and elaborate some of my thoughts on this subject, but for now I will simply post the video, and encourage you to leave comments at Sam’s Blog.
The question I have for Sam, which I will post on this blog and hope for a reply, is: what makes him think that a super computer will never be able to help us make moral decisions? Does he think that the field of artificial intelligence is a fool’s errand, or does he subscribe to some theoretical basis for it’s limits in this regard? (I know it’s completely unrelated to the point of Sam’s talk, but I just wondered where he’s coming from with this remark!)
