[extropy-chat] Are ancestor simulations immoral?

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Hi Jef,
   
  An excellent point. Speaking for myself: Sometimes I enjoy a little bit of sadness. I never want to loose the ability to be emotionally moved by a work of art, for example. I want to be able to "feel" the despair of Mozart's Requiem, and sadness is definitely an element of that. My point, the only point that I've been trying to make since the beginning of this thread is this: *I* should be the only being that can inflict pain or death on myself. No one and nothing else, should have that "freedom". Ever! Under any circumstances. And the same goes for any other conscious being, in my opinion.
   
  Best Wishes,
   
  Jeffrey Herrlich  

Jef Allbright <jef at jefallbright.net> wrote:
  On 5/27/06, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at tsoft.com> wrote:     Really, it's all very silly. Clearly no one is actually having
any harm come to them. So what if a person briefly passes into
and out of existence in a nanosecond?  Instead of worrying about
the fantastic numbers of "deaths", worry instead about happiness 
and suffering.



Lee -

Some individuals on this list would argue that the creation of sentient life is an intrinsic (extropic) good, and destroying that same life is therefore bad.  Others would argue, as you seem to imply and in accord with Pearce's hedonistic imperative, that happiness and suffering are intrinsically good and bad respectively.  I would argue against both of these positions and say that none of these are intrinsically good or bad, but can only be evaluated relative to some set of subjective values, which fortunately for society we hold in common to some extent. 

I expect that you have already thought this through in some depth, but I would not like to leave standing the impression that happiness without meaning (such as a drug-induced state of blissful incapacitation) would be intrinsically good or that suffering is intrinsically bad. 

- Jef
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