Mark on Pandora

(www.pandora.com is the issue in question)...

"Pandora looks like a great idea.
In '94 my Religious Studies A-Level dissertation was on the ethical
implications of virtual reality. They were predicting how artificial
intelligence, like the one in Pandora (it uses neural networks, and
prob'ly genetic algorithms as well) will add up into an unforeseen
superintelligence - or at least that the danger of this cannot be
logically excluded.

The fact that all computerised learning networks have not yet taken over
the world: does it prove that no giant AI has emerged yet? Or that it did,
but knows better than to reveal itself? Kind of like Pascal's argument for
the existence of God.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager

and of course

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_programming_language

Which calls to mind that when the French were looking for a
non-English sounding name for 'computer' in the 60s, they picked
'ordinateur': a technical term from Pascalian theology,
unused since the 17th century.

And Pandora's fate, after she opened the box.