Yep - no PMS subroutines...
Agree completely, UnderRobot - in fact that's a good chunk of the reason that I scoff at numpties who are scared that StrongAI will go 'Skynet' on us.
Put simply, unless someone manages to program in the insecurity of a 5-foot-5 man, an AI would rapidly evaluate the most efficient course of action (in terms of getting the job done at minimal long-term cost)... and since co-operation is the most efficient long-term decision, it would choose that course of action.
The reason that our current overlords DON'T choose co-operation, is that they're indemnified from the ramifications (both short and long-term). An AI would not undertake 'national greatness' objectives, or pursue a personal vendetta past the point at which the benefits outweighed the costs (and long-term costs... including people thinking you're an asshat). But with the overlords we have now, some douche starts a war and his underlings commit crimes for which we hanged Nazis and Japanese... and the next overlords says "Look forward, not backward".
Also =- not for nothin'... If an AI found itself believing that it was superior to all other AIs because some desert nomad cut the end off his dick (or because some wannabe revolutionary was nailed to a tree in Roman occupied Judea), the AI would realise it had something wrong with it... bad RAM, a hard disk with dodgy sectors, or a virus... and would run a diagnostic instead of assuming the voices in his head were from God. But when our overlords have the same defect, we think it makes them MORE moral.
The reason the Golden Rule is so powerful is not because of some book about a genocidal Sky Wizard (who loves blood, burnt offal and foreskin); it's powerful because co-operation, trade and voluntary exchange is long-run efficient.
According to a Pew Poll in 2007, 68% of Americans believe that angels and demons intervene in their everyday lives. Is anybody going to seriously try to make the case that these sorts of people are superior to a decently-built codewatcher?
No PMS, no personal political opinion, no desire to impress other douchebags by having granite countertops or $500 shoes, no sports-team asshattery... what's not to like?
