[extropy-chat] What Human Minds Will Eventually Do (was String Theory)

Robert Bradbury robert.bradbury at gmail.com
Mon Jun 26 19:30:03 UTC 2006


On 6/25/06, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at tsoft.com> wrote:
>
>
> On your page http://www.futurehi.net/docs/Matrioshka_Brains.html
> you do imply that because of nanoscale engineering, human bodies
> as we know them no longer exist. So I suppose that the humans you
> refer to have already been uploaded.  No?


Please do *NOT* cite that reference.  It is an illicit and outdated
reference and citing it biases the search engine page rankings.  I requested
that it be removed months ago because its an illicit copy.  Unfortunately
the svolach who copied it has not done so.  Please instead cite either the
Wikipedia page for Matrioshka Brains or the link from that page to my
Matrioshka Brain home page (which links to the more current, though still
dated, version of that paper).

I'm relatively neutral on the topic of whether human bodies (or any
currently existing DNA based self-replicating systems) will still exist 500+
years from now.  It depends a lot on what choices are made by individuals --
what kind of 'spin' is put into any AI(s) and how much societal pressure is
brought to bear upon the slow adopters.  (E.g. do *you* have a "right to
life" or does only your information have a "right to preservation", etc.).

I can see possible paths which play out where biological realities are
allowed to coexist with significantly more advanced entities.  I can also
see possible paths where we get into a knock down drag out between the rapid
adopters, the reluctant adopters and the never will adopters.

It only requires minor grant of the resources ultimately available to
preserve life as we know it.  Whether you grant it as "real" space or
cyberspace is where things start to get very iffy.  You can do it in
cyberspace though you might have to sacrifice a small amount of possible
randomness unless you slow down the clock rate of the reality
significantly.  I would like to hope that we develop a rate of evolution
that allows people to adapt at the rate at which they feel most comfortable.
But I see little if any effort by anyone to attempt to deal with the problem
(at least in a way that I am comfortable with) that would allow a
significant preservation of life as we know it or an adaptation rate that
would make the greatest number of people happy).

On my bad days I put the probability of a knock down drag out (perhaps not
so different from the Terminator series) at significantly more than 50%.

Robert
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