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Comment by pratnala | Hacker News Reader

I like how your comment goes from no issues to alarmist.

You missed his point. People are the problem, not computers. Computers can help people hurt other people, just like guns help people hurt other people. But instead the hype is about the possibility of computers hurting people, on their own. Which, at least at this point, is about as alarming as the possibility that a gun will go off on its own.

And I think that you and the great-grandparent missed the point: It's not people, it's sentience that is dangerous.

Since the dawn of time that meant man or gods. Soon that list will need to include computers.

Until that "soon" arrives, there's a far greater chance that people will wipe out humanity. We have more suicidal terrorists today than ever in history.

Suicidal terrorists are hardly a threat to the existence of humanity. It takes quite a bit more than explosive vests to destroy all of mankind.

All of it, sure. But most of it might be easier than you think. Just one bomb in the wrong place can trigger a chain of catastrophic events. Don't forget that we have nukes in places like North Korea and Pakistan, and Iran is building one as fast as they can.

Excuse me, but I'd rather worry about those threats, than about a robot uprising.

"Stream of consciousness writing" or whatever it's called =)

I don't consider the two viewpoints expressed to be contraditory.

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