Friendly artificial intelligence

Probably people who are working closely with AI problems have heard of this magnificent concept, but I've discovered it just recently. Concept of friendly artificial intelligence sound very science fictional. By definition friendly AI is an artificial intelligence that has a positive influence/effect on humanity.

I found very interesting article "Why we need friendly AI" written by Luke Muehlhauser and Nick Bostrom.  Small quote will stimulate your curiosity:

Humans will not always be the most intelligent agents on Earth, the ones steering the future. What will happen to us when we no longer play that role, and how can we prepare for this transition?

Machine Intelligence Research Institute has a group working on this idea. On youtube you can find several interesting talks by research fellow of this institute Eliezer Yudkowsky.

Matematics vs Computer science

For several years I'm working with mathematicians. And I think this citation very clear expresses the cause of difficulties in communication:

"In mathematics we are usually concerned with declarative (what is) description, whereas in computer science we are usually concerned with imperative (how to) descriptions"

From Hal Abelson's, Jerry Sussman's and Julie Sussman's Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

SICP about Lisp

Lisp obeys the convention that every expression has a value. This convention, together with the old reputation of Lisp as an inefficient language, is the source of quip by Alan Perlis (paraphrasing Oscar Wilde) that "Lisp programmers knows the value of everything but the cost of nothing".

From Hal Abelson's, Jerry Sussman's and Julie Sussman's Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs