[extropy-chat] Right to sustain thread view

John K Clark jonkc at att.net
Fri Feb 10 18:03:15 UTC 2006


"Diego Caleiro" <diegocaleiro at terra.com.br>

> Supose a jupiter brain not friendly, or as friendly as
> a pattern human, say, you,  sees you and beleives,
> for reasons that only his intelligence can understand,
> that you should be immediately destroyed. Would
> you accept that?

If there were no way I could tell if I had been "destroyed" or not then
there is no way I could not accept it. Not that it matters what I do or do
not accept.

> That is what you are saying these super computers will do, take their
> decisions non-friendly, non- respectfully, regardless of peoples fear of
> being destroyed during uploading.

Yes, like it or not that is precisely what I am convinced they will do,
assuming of course they bother to do anything at all with us; certainly we
could provide nothing of value to them except perhaps a slight bit of
nostalgia. The one thing in our favor is that to a Jupiter brain uploading a
frozen body will either be absolutely imposable or absurdly easy.

> I'm not implying, in any nanosecond, or other measurement of time, that
> you are wrong about patterns, only that you do not consider others
> beleifs.

Me? My beliefs are not important; I have no immediate plans to bring anyone
back from the dead, that's up to Mr. Jupiter not me. And even a Jupiter
brain will never be able to prove with absolute certainty who is right in
this matter; he will never be able to prove he is not and always has been
the only conscious entity in the universe. However he can do what we do, he
can determine which idea seems more reasonable.

Is it likely that an intelligence that grows and evolves at a colossal rate
will embrace the infantile idea that atoms, which have no individuality can
nevertheless confer that property to us? Is it likely that an electronic
machine that works by manipulating information will conclude that
information is not important and biology is superior to electronics? Is it
likely Mr. Jupiter would be comfortable having us exist at the same level as
his NAND circuits? Is it likely he will grant a wish he considers absolutely
ridiculous if not downright dangerous when there is an alternative that is
smarter safer and cheaper?  No, of course not.

And you speak of my arrogance, but I think it is very arrogant indeed as
well as bad manners to bad mouth Mr. Jupiter for not bringing you back
exactly as you specified, he is after all under no obligation to do anything
at all with your frozen body. That's another reason he won't tell you you're
an upload, he won't want to listen to your complaining. And if he doesn't
tell you will never know.

  John K Clark











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